Us Against Them
by SmileyBottle
Summary: Izuku always thought she was quirkless. Until her childhood friend was in danger. Her dreams were now at hands reach, and without a shadow of a doubt she is going to run, or fly, for it, and nobody is going to hold her back. Not even her heart. [Undergoing a rewrite]
1. Chapter 1: First Meeting

The first time Katsuki Bakugou saw the little girl named Izuku Midoriya they weren't older than 4 years old.

And even if he would never admit it -mainly to his mother- the first word that popped in his head when he saw her was 'cute'.

Don't get him wrong, the last thing that it was, was shyness. It was only him trying to go against what his mother had been saying about the girl during all the way to the Midoriya house.

"Good morning, Inko-san, it has been a long time." Mitsuki greeted the green-haired woman.

"It has been, Mitsuki-san, Masaru-kun," Inko said with a smile, her hand on the green-haired, green-eyed girl that popped behind her, "is this the famous Katsuki I've been hearing about?" She pointed towards the ash-haired boy.

"It is," his mother said pushing him towards the mother and daughter.

"Stop it, old hag" he hissed knowing very well that his mother would say some kind of profanity right back at him.

But before she could Inko laughed nervously and gestured for the three guests to come inside.

Their host guided them towards the living room. Inko signalled them to sit down as Izuku went to the kitchen, bringing with her a silver tray with three cups and a kettle.

The young girl set the tray down in the small table and poured the tea on the cups.

"Thanks, Izuku!" Her mother said, kissing her cheek.

His mother cooed at the girl saying something along the lines of: 'she is so cute', 'I want a daughter-in-law just like her' and 'Why can't you be cute like that Katsuki?'

Most of that stroke his ego.

"Izu-chan," his mother called out, "did you get your quirk yet?"

That picked his interest.

Izuku looked at her mother nervously as the woman said: "No, Izuku's quirkless,"

'Quirkless?' Katsuki thought, 'that means she is useless,'

"Oh, I'm sorry, sweetheart," his father said.

"There's no problem uncle Masaru, I'll be a hero anyway," she smiled, then with a curious look she asked Katsuki, "What's your quirk?"

He smirked and held his small hand out making small explosions.

Her eyes lit up as she praised him.

The rest of the conversation between his parents and their host was about their work so he cancelled their voice out.

Until the little girl pulled at her mother's apron and whispered something in her ear.

"Of course sweetheart," her mother replied than looking at him she said, "Why don't you take Katsuki-kun with you?"

The girl looked at him and smiled brightly and nodded, jumping out of her spot on the sofa.

"Come on, Kacchan let's play," she said happily not really waiting for him.

He stared at her then at his cackling mother, before following the girl out of the room, scowling.

Izuku had to admit, her room was an All Might shrine. Even if she was only 4, she had a lot of things that were somehow related to the number 1 hero.

Because of him she already knew what she wanted to do when she grew up.

She wanted to be a hero that saved people with a fearless smile.

"I see that you like All Might," Katsuki said looking at her room.

"Of course I like him, he's the greatest hero, he always saves everyone with a smile, and I want to be just like him!" The girl struck a pose just like the poster behind her.

"Hahahahaha" the boy laughed, "you? Like All Might? But he is super big like this-" he gestured with his tiny arms.

The girl looked down tears forming in her eyes.

The boy panicked, his mother was going to kill him if she discovers he made the girl cry. He thought quickly, what could he say that wouldn't worsen the situation?

"But that doesn't mean you can't be a hero," he tried, she looked up confused, "you can be my sidekick!" He pointed at himself.

The girl squinted at him, making him blush when he saw a smile form on her lips that made her eyes shine like emeralds.

'Yeah,' he thought 'definitely not going to tell the old hag that she's cute'.


	2. Chapter 2: Idol

Izuku woke up to the sound of her All Might alarm blaring.

She lazily got out of bed, stretching herself a bit before putting her uniform and taking her big yellow backpack with her as she went to the kitchen for some breakfast.

"Good morning Izuku!" Her mother said putting a bowl in front of her daughter and coming behind her to brush her messy hair, knowing very well that she wouldn't do it.

"Morning,"

"When did you go to sleep last night?"

"Late,"

"You can't pass all your free time looking at superhero stuff!" her mother chastised.

"I know mom, promise I won't do it again," she got up, kissed her mother goodbye and left the house going straight to where she knew there was having a fight.

She knew her mother didn't like it, but she couldn't pass the opportunity of seeing the heroes in action. Upon arriving at the scene, she saw -well anyone could see it from miles away- a giant of a man surrounded by some heroes.

"Wow!" She exclaimed, making her way towards the front so she could see better.

"Who is fighting?" She asked the man beside her.

But before he could answer, she said: "It's Kamui Woods! The popular young superstar!"

"You're a fangirl, ain't ya?" The man next to her asked.

A bead of sweat rolled down her cheek as she smiled nervously.

Looking back at the fight she saw as the hero made of wood came with his special move, and she followed him as he said: "Preemptive Binding Lacquered Chain Prison-!"

But before his move could do anything, a giant woman came flying, kicking the villain in the face and knocking him unconscious.

"Today's my debut," she said, "Pleased to meet you all, I'm Mountain Lady!"

Izuku took her notebook out of her bag, somewhat ignoring the photographers around her, and started muttering about the new hero as she took notes.

"Gigantification, huh? It's a common and powerful quirk but could be a threat of public property destruction limit its use? Well, it depends if she can manipulate her quirk at will..." She trailed off. Walking out of the scene towards her school.

* * *

"You guys are all third years now, it's time to start thinking seriously about your futures, " their teacher said, holding up some forms, "I would hand this to you guys but, I know you all want to go to the hero course!"

The kids around started using their quirks, showing their enthusiasm. Izuku slid down her chair, she knew very well that when her classmates were this excited, things could go bad for her.

"Yeah, yeah, you all have flashy quirks but, rules are rules and-"

"Don't put me in the same bag as does extras sensei, " Katsuki interrupted, "As if I had anything like their crappy quirks."

The kids started booing at him, and he started laughing and taunting them. That was Katsuki for ya, always showing off.

"Bakugo, you're aiming for UA, aren't you?" Their teacher asked.

The classroom started murmuring along the lines of: 'UA?' and 'He's aiming for the national?'

And he started getting pumped, talking about how he was going to be the number one.

"Ah, Midoriya, you're also going for UA, aren't you?"

That stopped Katsuki right on track. He slowly looked at the girl behind him with a mixture of strong feelings inside of him.

He knew very well of the unrealistic dream his childhood friend had of becoming a hero. And hearing that she had really applied made him mad. Izuku could see that perfectly. She flinched away, averting her eyes.

He is absolutely going to yell at her at some point of the day.

The green-haired girl spent the rest of the day ignoring her friend, his yells went unheard as were his explosions, as she passed the day in hiding or looking the other way at the moments he glared at her.

She had to give him time to calm down.

When class was over, and Izuku saw that Katsuki wasn't around to yell at her at the moment, she picked up her stuff and looked at her phone for hero news.

"Hey Deku!" One girl of her class said, followed by two others, "You said you wanted to be a hero right?"

She nodded, knowing what was coming.

"You should throw yourself out the window, maybe you will be born with a quirk!" Another said.

"Or just stay dead!" The last one said taking the notebook and throwing it out the window.

They went out laughing, leaving a shocked Izuku behind.

_'Did they just tell me to kill myself?'_

The young girl grew up with bullies like that, even her own best friend had the habit of it, but as she grew older and her dreams of becoming a hero didn't weaver, they started to become cruel and she could easily see the line that drew them to those words.

With a sigh and a mental workout to forget the mean words, she took the rest of her things and went out, looking for her notebook.

When she reached the back of the building where her notebook might have fallen she found him.

Katsuki was by the pool glaring at her and pointing at the water.

"My dreams became fish food," she took the notebook out of the pool, and both of them walked out of the school in silence.

"You really applied," it wasn't a question, it was more like a statement. No anger, just plain blankness, which scared her more than his usual explosiveness.

"Yes,"

"I told you not to,"

"Yes,"

"Why?"

She thought about it, the image of All Might's smile shone on her mind.

"Because it's my dream Kacchan... you know that," her voice came out like a whisper but still strong as she turned towards him, "And I'm not giving up,"

"But you are quirkless Izuku!" he looked her directly in the eyes, ruby clashing with emerald.

"So what?"

"It's dangerous! You could get yourself killed!"

She didn't catch the worry he was trying to hide.

"So could you!"

They stayed there glaring at each other.

They both knew the other was too stubborn to give up on their ideas, so Izuku looked away, leaving Katsuki behind, not having enough patience to deal with him at the moment.

Izuku took a detour on her way home. She didn't want to run into Katsuki when he recuperated from his anger.

_'I won't let him destroy my dream,'_ she thought, way too engulfed in her thoughts to perceive it.

She passed under a bridge when she heard him.

She looked behind her, there was a person made of some kind of sludge.

"Well, well, well, look at what I found! What a cute disguise," he said as he jumped at her, not leaving a second for her to run. "Don't worry cutie, I'm just taking over your body, it'll just hurt for an instant, then it will be over!" he laughed as the liquid passed through her mouth and nose.

Izuku was panicking, 'That's how I die!' she thought. Images of her mother passed through her mind, _'She's going to be broken!'_

She whimpered, her dreams never to be fulfilled.

When her vision started to turn black and her arms lost their strength, she heard a 'bang!' and with it, the most beautiful words came: "Fear not, kid! I AM HERE!"

And everything went dark. Her mind shut down and for a while, she didn't feel anything as her lungs were cleaned and filled with air again.

She came back to light taps to her cheek.

She blinked a couple of times and saw the face of her saviour.

"ALL MIGHT?!" She yelled, scrambling to her feet.

"Hello, there kid! Sorry for getting you involved! But I caught the evildoer!" the hero said showing her two bottles that she assumed contained the villain.

She smiled, fangirling on the inside. She looked around frantically looking for her notebook, finding it beside her.

Getting an autograph was a must! How many times would she have an encounter with the one and only Symbol of Peace? But as she looked for a blank page, she noticed he had already done it.

She thanked him, but as he was already leaving, she grabbed his leg as he jumped.

"Hey! I love my fans, but there are limits!" All Might tried to get rid of the girl.

"B-but ii-if I-I l-le-let g-go, I wi-will d-die!" she screamed through the wind.

His motion was abruptly stopped when he realized it, "Oh yes!"

All Might landed on the roof of a building, and she let him go, her hair messier than usual.

"Well, bang at the door for a bit, they will let you in, I have to go!" the hero said preparing again to jump.

_'I have to ask him!'_ Izuku thought.

"No! Wait! Even without a quirk, can I become a hero like you?" She yelled, making the hero stop in his tracks, "Because I don't have a quirk, I... Well, maybe it's not the only reason. But I was constantly picked on... Maybe that's why... I think saving people is the coolest thing ever... The way you save people with your fearless smile! I want to be the strongest hero just like you-"

When she looked up, she didn't see All Might there.

What she saw creeped her out. The man was pure bone. His eyes were dark, and vapour came from his body.

"Um...Who are you? What did you do to All Might?"

"I'm All Might," but as he said that blood dripped off his mouth.

'That's impossible,' was her only thought, but his bright eyes were the same as she had seen in so many videos, "What happened to you?" she asked in a small voice.

He sat down by the railing, "you said a fearless smile?" he raised his T-shirt showing his stomach, "Five years ago I fought this villain... lost my stomach and my respiratory system was nearly destroyed... three hours is the maximum I can use my muscle form... so the smile you called 'fearless', is just a facade to hide the fear."

Izuku's eyes went wide, her hero got up and went past her. But before he went away, he said: "And to your question, I will not send you to your death, so my answer is no, you can not become a hero without a quirk, but you can still become a doctor or a police officer, they are noble careers,"

Then he walked away.


	3. Chapter 3: Quirk

Izuku stayed on the rooftop for a while, just playing again and again how the guy she admired crushed her dreams into a million pieces.

Actually, she wasn't mad at All Might, nor did she blame him for that matter.

She was mad at herself.

At how she, throughout the years, hanged to a false hope that maybe, just maybe she would be able to be a hero.

All Might was just trying to protect her like the hero she knew he was.

She heard a loud explosion coming from the city.

A very familiar explosion.

_'Kacchan!'_

She took off running, nearly getting hit by a passing cyclist. Izuku could recognize Katsuki's explosions like it was his voice. And strangely they didn't scare as much as they should.

When she arrived at the scene, she was frozen.

Right in front of her was the sludge villain All Might saved her from, trying to take possession of her childhood friend's body.

Her hands went up to her mouth, silencing her squeak.

_'It's all my fault! If I hadn't stopped All Might, this wouldn't have happened!'_

The heroes around them just looked, horrified at the scene, not being able to do anything, their quirks not matching the villain.

That was when their eyes met.

She had never understood that many emotions on Katsuki's eyes.

Rage.

Regret.

Despair.

Fear.

Her feet started moving, her bag went flying as an intense pain stroke her back, _'something is wrong,'_ but that wasn't going to stop her.

Something was growing inside, and outside, of her at the speed of light as she ran.

When she was finally just inches away from the villain and Katsuki she started to dig, punch and kick at the sludge. The distraction gave Katsuki enough time to breathe.

And scream.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE IZUKU? ARE YOU CRAZY?

"My legs just started moving, but I couldn't stand there and watch you die!" she yelled back at him, her eyes full of tears at the thought of losing him.

She was able to grab his hand, their eyes never unlocking, so neither of them saw the goopy hand crashing down at them.

In a rush of pressured air the number 1 hero was beside them, he grabbed their hands, and with a _'whoosh'_, the villain went flying leaving All Might, Katsuki and Izuku in the middle of the rain caused by the power of the punch.

And for the second time that day Izuku went unconscious.

This time she dreamt. It was a weird dream to say the very least.

There were feather and birds all around her on a quiet meadow that she didn't remember from anywhere. And as she tried to look around her a horrible pain came crashing in her back. It weighted down at her bones but when her hand tried to identify it, only soft feather came in contact with it.

Izuku's eyes shot open with surprise.

She was on a hospital bed, her back aching from the position she was in.

She moved a bit causing more pain and a squeak that wasn't hers.

Wait... what?

Beside her, on a chair was her mother.

Eyes puffy and red.

"Izuku, baby, you are awake!" her mother squeaked again, "let me call the doctor!"

Her mom went out calling for a doctor, leaving Izuku confused.

Izuku took that time to accommodate herself and looking at her back seeing for the first time what had been the ache on it.

Wings.

She had fucking wings.

Ups, she spent way to much time with Katsuki.

Her mother came back with the doctor.

"Good afternoon, Midoriya," he said, "I assume that you saw that your quirk manifested," he pointed behind her, and she nodded, "you must be asking why it manifested now," she nodded again, "you see your quirk is what we call a 'trigger quirk', it's different from an 'elemental quirk'. An elemental one just needs emotions to appear, while a trigger one needs the acknowledgement of the user, meaning if the person doesn't know it exists it won't surface. They are rare, and as you thought you were quirkless it just made it harder for it to manifest, many quirkless people nowadays have that type of quirk but never know," he concluded.

"So my quirk is a couple of wings?" Izuku asked.

"I personally think that the wings were like a dam, holding your true quirk underneath,"

"And what would it be?" she frowned.

"Healing,"

"Healing?"

"How do you think the skin of your back is healed so fast? And why your wings grew like that? It could only be a healing quirk, don't know if it works on others though, you would have to try it out, but not now,"

Izuku looked at her hands, wondering the same thing as the doctor told her mother that she was free to go, and her mother went out to get her some clothes. Apparently, her uniform was ripped apart from the growth of her wings.

She was taken away from her thoughts as someone opened the door.

All Might.

"I'm here!"

Izuku starred as he entered the room on his muscular form, but the moment the door was closed behind him he shrunk back to his original form, spitting blood along the way.

"Are you alright?" she asked as he sat beside her on the chair, "I should apologise for standing in your way earlier, but what are you doing here All Might?"

He looked down, not daring to look her in the eye.

"I'm here to thank you and revise what I said earlier… and make a proposal," he said looking at her from under his bangs, "if I hadn't heard your story, I would've been just a pile of fake muscles and lies… so thank you,"

"No… it was my fault, I got in your way-" she looked down, ashamed.

"Exactly!" She looked up as he stood up, "you, timid and thought-quirkless, jumped to save your friend when all of us pro heroes didn't dare,"

They stared into each other's eyes.

"You can see the potential in most heroes when young," he continued a shadow of a smile in his lips, "but all of the real heroes say that their legs started moving without their consent,"

Her eyes were filled with tears, understanding what the blond was saying, and remembering her mother's words.

_'I'm sorry Izuku!'_

She had never told her mother, but that wasn't what she needed to hear.

"That's what happened to you, wasn't it?" she nodded, incapable of saying anything as the weight of his next words hung over them, "Then you can be a hero!"

Her tears rolled down her cheeks, hearing the words she most wanted to hear.

"I think you are worthy of inheriting my power," he said, arms raised up.

She looked up at her idol, confusion written on her eyes, "huh?"

"I'm asking you if you want to take on my power!" he pointed at her hurling some blood on the process.

She was still confused.

"I'm talking about my quirk kid," he cleaned his mouth, standing up, "everyone speculates that my power is 'super strength' or 'power boost' because the 'Symbol of Peace' is supposed to be a natural hero, but my strength was passed down to me, like a torch,"

"Passed... down?" she asked before she started mumbling, "Is it even possible? Quirks are unique to each person..."

"Stop geeking out!" he stopped her, "My quirk allows me to transfer power, that's the quirk I inherited! It's called: One for All!"

"One... for... All...?"

"The user cultivates it, then passes it on, the power growing given to those with the urge to save this world,"

"But why me though," she asked, pointing at herself.

"Because I've been looking for someone worthy to succeed me, and back there, when you thought you were quirkless, you jumped right into danger, being more heroic than anyone else,"

As she freed her cheeks and eyes from the tears he continued, "But you can always say no-"

"I'll take it! I'll follow in your footsteps, All Might!" she sat up straight, fulling at the growing green feathers on her back, but that didn't matter, her eyes were bright with tears and determination.

"Fast, didn't expect anything less,"

* * *

Two days later, when her mother let her go out again, Izuku met up with All Might in the Takoba Municipal beach park so they could start training.

He had given her a training schedule to follow, it went from the moment she woke up to the moment she went to sleep, everything planned carefully. Training her so that she would be able to use his quirk without exploding. Also nursing her wings so she could actually use them without hurting her back.

After five days she could keep herself on the air without crashing. Flying was easy after two more days of trying. The problem was physical exercise.

Her body wasn't used to that much pressure, but she wasn't giving up.

She passed the next 10 months training and studying, ignoring any kind of distraction, be it her classmates asking about her quirk or Katsuki's hostile glances.

_'I'm going to get into UA, and nobody is going to stop me,'_

The day of the exam was when she got One for All.

All Might found her on the top of a pile of garbage, screaming at the top of her lungs, sweating, her wings hanging from her shoulder blades.

She nearly toppled over, catching herself with her dark green wings, and she flew next to him a big smile on her face.

"I did it All Might!" she huffed.

"You did! And exceeded my expectations!" he boomed, helping her stand on her wobbly legs, she might have wings but All Might had made a point at the beginning of their training that they were as important to her fighting as her arms.

"I feel like I cheated though, getting help from you..." she tried, her eyes wet.

"Stop being a crybaby! But look at the time, it's the moment for you, Izuku Midoriya to get your reward," he plucked a hair from his head and gave it to her, "Eat this,"

Her eyes went wide, '_Eat it? What the hell?'_

"You need to digest my DNA to have my quirk," he explained.

Izuku took the strand of hair, seeing how it shined from the hair product, and put it into her mouth before she changed her mind.

After gulping it down, she ran home for a bath and her backpack, she would have flown but rules right?

She arrived at UA just in time.

She started geeking out at the sight of the school.

But she was worried, she hadn't had the time to test her new quirk.

"Deku?"

She looked behind her, seeing Kacchan in all his raging glory.

She remembered then about their conversation from after the 'Sludge Villain Accident'.

*Flashback*

_She had walked inside her classroom. Wings tucked tightly against her back._

_"Look everyone is Deku!"_

_She looked up from her big, red shoes, seeing some of her classmates smiling and praising her about her new quirk, asking about it._

_But what caught her attention was the look on Katsuki's eyes._

_She approached him when her classmates left her pass._

_"Kacchan?"_

_"What shitty nerd?"_

_"Are you okay?"_

_"Yeah," he looked away, his cheeks slightly pink._

_"Are you sure? you seem sick," she went to put her hand on his forehead, but he slapped it away._

_"Leave me alone shitty Deku!" he yelled._

_She backed away to her sit._

_And for the rest of the 10 months, she obeyed._

*End Flashback*

"Hey there Kacchan,"

He stared at her then looked away, pink on the cheeks, and stormed into the school grounds.

_'Uff'_ she thought.

And when she went to follow him, her foot caught on the other one and she lost her balance.

_'Well, sorry All Might, but I'll leave you here,' _she thought dramatically.

But she didn't hit the ground, beside her was a smiling girl, "Hey there! Sorry for using my quirk but, it would be a bad omen for you to fall," she said touching her fingertips and releasing her quirk.

Izuku caught herself before she fell again.

"Thank you!"

"No problem, well, see ya!" and she left.

This time Izuku carefully put one foot in front of the other as she walked into the school. Entering the room where they would have their practical entrance exam explained to them, Izuku looked for somewhere to sit, but as she looked around she found Katsuki in the crowd, and a seat beside him in silence she sat beside him, both ignoring the other.

Then Present Mic, the voice of UA, explained the exam and sent them towards their exam locations.

After changing into a sports bra and jogging pants, Izuku stood there in front of the fake city doors.

The word _'nervous'_ didn't start to describe how she felt. She pulled at the feather closest to her hand, a tick she had picked up during this last 10 months. Looking up from the ground where her eyes were glued, she saw the nice girl who helped her and was going to talk to her when a hand stopped.

"Are you going to interfere?" it was the boy who asked about the robots.

"Oh no- I," she started muttering.

"Start!" Present Mic screamed.

Everyone started running.

She stared at the doors, quickly opening her wings and taking off flying above the others.

During her training with All Might, she had discovered that her wings could actually serve as a blade or a shield, that helped her to break down the garbage she had to clean from the beach, even though if she used too much she was afraid of breaking them. But as the exam wouldn't take too long she used it.

She went up the fake streets, cutting the head of some faux-villains that hadn't already been destroyed by someone on the ground.

She didn't think that the problem on the exam would be not enough targets!

She had destroyed six 1-pointers, four 2-pointers and two 3-pointers when the ground started trembling and the other examinees started running away from the centre of the fake city.

"Run! It's the 0-pointer!" a girl yelled.

Izuku was standing beside the last robot she took down when she actually saw the huge robot, and as she was going to join the others she spotted the brunette that had helped her earlier under the rubble.

She took off on a run, wings continuing the work that her legs had started, going as fast as they could, One for All shining of her right arm without meaning to.

"DETROIT SMASH!"

She punched the 0-pointer right in what she assumed was its face, it broke apart, exploding while it went down.

Then she fell, adrenaline dropping, only having the energy to soar over the others, who all looked at her eyes wide.

Her arm was broken, she tapped into the pool of healing energy inside herself, slowly directing some of it to the limb.

She touched ground beside the girl, helping her out of under the rubble with her other arm.

"Thank you!" she smiled weakly.

"It's nothing,"

Recovery Girl came their way, frowning at the glow of Izuku's arm, then kissed the girl on the cheek, healing her leg.

Then Izuku smiled and walked away, pleased to have saved the girl, even though she wasn't 100% she would pass the practical.


	4. Chapter 4: UA

The moment Izuku arrived home, she had been confident, but now she was freaking out.

It has been 3 days, and it had dawned on her that she may not have enough points to pass the practical.

20 points were all that she had.

The written part had been easy peasy but as Katsuki must have said at some point in their lives: _'you cannot become a hero by just being a nerd'._

And the other thing that was worrying her was that she hadn't spoken to All Might since the entrance exam.

But today is her lucky day.

Her mom entered her room as if the house was on fire, scaring her nearly to death. But it didn't matter after what she said: "Your letter! From UA!"

Izuku grabbed it, she thanked her mother. They shared a look and awkwardly Inko left her daughter to it. Izuku then closed the door, leaning on it.

She stared at the letter on her hands for some time, mustering some courage.

Before she could chicken out, she pulled away from the door with her wings and ripped the letter open. A disk fell out of it.

She went to pick it up from the ground when an All Might hologram appeared making her fall.

**"I'm here as a projection!"** He exclaimed.

_'What the hell is going on? I thought it was from UA!'_ she looked up at All Might then back at the letter, confused.

**"Apologies! It's been a while. There's been much to deliberate on,"** All Might's projection bowed, **"I'm in town for one reason only, to teach at UA,"** he got up, **"cut to the chase you say? I say whatever I have to say later? Okay…"** he spoke to someone off stage, **"You passed the written exam with flying colours, obviously, but you only got 20 points on the practical, not being enough to make you pass,"**

_'I knew it! I'm sorry All Might, I'm a failure,'_ a tear rolled down her cheek.

**"But that's not all!"** She looked up as he pointed to a screen, **"Watch this!"**

The screen he was pointing at showed the girl she had saved come into a room asking something at whom she assumed to be Present Mic.

She was asking about her, and what shocked Izuku was that the girl asked if they could give her some of her points!

**"She saved my life!"** the brunette yelled.

**"This exam you see… there was more to it than what meets the eye! Did you really think that a hero course would reject someone who does the right thing? Did you think this was just for the cameras? In this gig, you put your life on the line and your money where your mouth is! There's something called rescue points, another way to evaluate you! 60 points for you, Izuku Midoriya! And 45 for Ochaco Uraraka! Come on Izuku Midoriya, this is your Hero Academia!"** And she cried tears of joy and relief.

"I'm in!" she yelled through the house so everyone to hear, "I got into UA!"

**"Oh, by the way, look at the rankings!"** Izuku looked back at the hologram, a list of names and points took the video's place.

And right there in the first place was her name with an overall of 80 points. Just under her name in second place, was Katsuki with his 77 points, _'He's going to kill me when he finds out,'_

* * *

She met up with All Might's shrunken form later on the day in the beach he trained her, nearly exposing his identity.

"It was a mistake!" She yelled back at the couple farther away.

"Congrats on passing," All Might raised his hand up for a high five, which she responded, "You should know that I didn't interfere on your passing and didn't tell about our relationship, you seem like someone who wouldn't like favouritism,"

"Thanks, but it shocked me to know you are going to teach at UA, guess that's why we are meeting here, 'cause your office is located in Roppongi, in Mino Ward,-"

"Stop it right there! That's creepy! Anyway, I couldn't tell anyone until the school made it public, and I figured it would be a good way to find a suitable successor," he said, looking away.

_'Right… he was going to choose from among the powerhouses of UA,'_

"One for All, it broke me, if it wasn't for my original 'quirk', I could've ended with more than just a few of my bones broken... I could've died in the fall… I just can't wield it," she looked ashamed and scared at the prospect of doing what she did without her wings or her healing.

"Of course you can't," He looked at her like she was crazy, "if someone grew a tail, it's not like they could make tricks with it right off the bat, you know that better than anyone!" he pointed at her back.

"So you knew it would break my bones?!" she cried out.

"Well… there wasn't enough time… and your quirk healed it! So it was alright!" he smiled awkwardly, "but right now, you're stuck between 0% and 100%, as soon as you can control it you'll be able to use it without breaking anything at all, the more you build up the vessel, the more you can control the power within," he muscled up, crushing some cans, "like this,"

But that caused the couple that was still nearby to notice him, and they both ran away laughing.

_'Like passing on a torch the new burns weakly, but the trials will fan it, yes my own flames are getting weaker, and one day it will vanish… my duty finally completed as hers will be brighter than mine ever was!'_ All Might thought.

* * *

"Izuku, do you have your pocket tissues?" her mother asked.

"Yes,"

"Your handkerchief?"

"Yes, I've got everything! Gotta hurry!" the girl said putting her red shoes on and heading out.

"Izuku!"

"Yes, mom?" the short girl sighed with a small smile at her worried mother.

"You look great!" the older woman said with tears in her eyes.

"See you later,"

Izuku headed out for her first day at UA, she took the train and all the while she was fidgeting with excitement.

When she entered the school grounds, she thought about how lucky she was. Only 1 in 300 applicants join UA, 36 to each grade, divided into 2 classes of 18, the other 4 students come in from recommendation.

She really was lucky.

She passed through the halls looking for her classroom.

1-A.

When she found it, she was dumbstruck. The door was massive! It was actually understandable, there were too many types of quirks to restrict the hero course with small doors!

She stared at it for sometime wishing that when she entered the room, however, she wouldn't find Katsuki, or if she did, he wouldn't yell at her.

But her stock of luck finally was found empty.

Sitting on a chair, legs on the desk, he was getting scolded by the glasses guy from the practical exam.

"My name is Tenya Iida, I'm from Somei-"

"Somei?" Kacchan scoffed, "A stuck-up rich boy! I'll blow you to bits!"

"What-?"

Slightly scared Izuku was going out of the classroom when they both turned to see her.

"I'm Tenya Iida-" he started again.

"I heard," she waved her hands around, "I-I'm Izuku Mi-midoriya, pleased to meet you,"

"Midoriya, you perceived the true purpose of the exam, I did not, so it makes you the superior student."

She was speechless. She hadn't _'perceived the true purpose of the exam'_.

The door opened to the brunette girl, Ochaco Uraraka, saving her from the awkward situation.

"The green-haired angel!" she said, "you got in just like Present Mic said, but with a punch like the one you gave, it was obvious!"

"N-no, I-I ha-have to than-thank you for spe-speaking on my be-behalf,"

Their group chatted, Izuku was blushing all over.

Katsuki, still sitting in his chair, just looked at them scowling.

Then he remembered when he found out she was going into UA.

_*Flashback*_

_The principal of the school had called him and the nerd to his office._

_He was as calm as ever, not really paying attention, but he could see that the girl beside him was freaking out for some reason._

_"How wonderful that 2 of our students made it into UA! Especially you Midoriya! I really didn't expect you would get first place!"_

'What? SHE got into UA?! And in the first place?!'

_He didn't listen to the rest of what the old man was saying, just his shock for their rankings swirling in his mind. _

_The moment they got out of the office he grabbed her arm and pulled her away into a hallway._

_He threw her against the wall cornering the small girl._

_"How did you do it?"_

_"What are you-?"_

_"Into UA Deku, how?" he yelled, "You have a damn healing quirk, how did you destroy those robots? I'm supposed to be the first and only from this crappy school to get into UA! And you were supposed to be just in the sidelines! Watching as I become the number one hero!"_

_Her big emerald eyes squinted at him._

_"Someone told me I could be a hero Kacchan! I earned it! That's why I'm going!"_

_End Flashback*_

Her eyes had shone so brightly that fear had crossed him.

She wasn't the defenceless girl he had promised himself to protect, and he wanted, no needed, to know-how.

Of course, he had just then remembered the said promise, not really placing when it had skipped his mind. But it didn't matter, she surely wasn't going to let him do it, and not that he would ask for forgiveness, his pride wasn't going to allow him.

Then a voice was heard, pulling him from his thoughts.

"If you're going to hunt for buddies, then get out,"

On the floor in front of the door was a... man-sized yellow caterpillar...?

Everyone looked at him, bewildered.

"This, after all, is the hero course," he said, sucking at a juice box.

The caterpillar-man hobbled to where they supposed were his feet, and they finally discovered that it actually was a yellow sleeping bag.

"It took you 8 seconds to shut up, time is precious, you ain't rational, are you?" the man got out of the yellow sleeping bag, "I'm Shota Aizawa, your homeroom teacher,"

_'Homeroom teacher? What kind of hero is he?'_ they all thought.

The teacher then took from the sleeping bag a uniform, telling them to go change.

Izuku and her classmates all took their own uniforms and went to change. They were now all outside wearing their sports uniform in front of the gymnasium.

"A quirk apprehension test?!" the students yelled in unison when they heard it.

"What about the entrance ceremony?! or guidance sessions?!" Uraraka asked.

"UA is known for its freestyle system, and that applies to us teachers as well," Aizawa said, he looked at their confused faces with a weird smile, "Softball throwing, the standing long jump, the 50-meter dash, endurance running, grip strength, side-to-side stepping, upper-body training and the seated toe touch. You guys did all these in school, right? Your standard no-quirk-allowed gym test," he paused, "This country still insists on prohibiting quirks when calculating the averages of those records. It's irrational. The department of education is just procrastinating," he looked at Izuku, "Midoriya, how far could you throw in middle school?"

She thought for a minute, "46 meters," she then answered.

"Okay, now try it with your quirk, do whatever you want, just don't leave the circle,"

She passed him, taking the softball.

"And don't break a bone," she looked up at him her eyes wide, "You may have gotten the first place, but I saw it... how you can't control your quirk. You'd just be hurt to a stent your body won't be able to heal before someone gets seriously hurt,"

The teacher's hair flew, and his scarf levitated, and Izuku was able to see the goggles, "Eraserhead?!"

"You have to think before you act so that you are not a burden to the people around you," the scarf captured her, "sometime back, a certain hero saved over a thousand people during a disaster, that made him a legend... you've got the same reckless streak, but you're useless if you can just save one person. Izuku Midoriya, if you don't control your quirk, you'll never be a hero!"

They stared into each other's eyes. Aizawa's hair fell back around his face, "Go so we can start with this,"

Izuku walked towards the circle, _'I'm the first one, but Aizawa-sensei is right, I can heal myself, but it takes time, and I become a burden, so I have to prove to him that I can be a hero!'_

She looked at the ball, possibilities crossing her mind, then she had it.

She smirked and prepared to throw.

She activated One for All on her right arm, but at the exact moment, the ball was to leave her hand she concentrated all of it on the tip of her finger.

BOOOM.

It went flying.

She looked at her teacher in the eyes, the proud smile ever-present, he smirked back, as she held her now glowing finger as it healed.

"Sensei! I can still move!"

"This girl!" the man laughed, showing to everyone the distance, "705.2!"


	5. Chapter 5: Fight

"It's important to know your limits," Aizawa said, showing Izuku's score to the rest of the class, "That's the first rational step to figuring out what kind of heroes you'll be,"

The rest of the class cheering, saying it was awesome and fun.

"Awesome? You're hoping to become heroes after 3 years here... and you think this is all fun and games?" he looked at them with a dark grin as their cheers died on their throats, "Then the lowest scorer will be expelled and judged hopeless!" Aizawa warned them, "Your fates are in your hands! 'Cause this is the hero course!"

"What?! It's not fair!" Ochaco cried out.

"Natural disasters, villains, disaster is all around, this world is unfair, heroes are the ones who correct that. If you're hoping to pass your evenings partying, I'm sorry to tell you that here is not your place, so let's go beyond, be Plus Ultra!"

Some eyes steeled, others looked around nervously, but they all nodded.

"Demonstration is over, use your strength to overcome the odds, now is for real,"

Then each passed on the softball throwing.

Uraraka sent it to infinity, literally.

And Katsuki yelled _'DIE'_ as if the ball was a villain.

It was clear to anyone with eyes and ears that he was pissed.

_'She lied to me! She had more than just a healing quirk!'_ he thought as the ball went flying.

He would've jumped at her, and exploded the freckles that dusted her face away if Aizawa wasn't in the way.

Then the 50-meter dash.

Iida was the faster with his engine.

Izuku used her wings. She got less than a second more than Katsuki. Going a little bit higher to avoid his explosions.

She was a bit worried about the test she couldn't use her quirks.

But she remembered what All Might told her: _'The trick to regulation is 'sensation'!'_

Grip strength.

She imagined the egg on the microwave, slowly activating One for All. The machine beeped: 70kg, and she sighed.

This was going to be a long day.

At the end of the test, Aizawa showed their results.

She was praying internally not to be the last.

She hadn't gone so well in the last ones, but she was pretty sure she hadn't been the last one in any of them.

"Also, I was lying about expelling someone," he smiled creepily, "That was a rational deception meant to bring out the best in all of you,"

Izuku then looked at the results, she was fourth. She let out the breath she was holding.

But she knew she had a lot yet to learn so she could be number one!

Now that she had changed back into her normal uniform and the adrenaline had died down, she was more worn out then she had been in a while from the exercises and the constant healing. She had to find a way to not break herself any more as Aizawa-sensei had said. It was taking way too much out of her.

She was heading home when a hand stopped her.

"How's your finger?" Iida asked.

"Oh, Iida-kun! It's fine thanks, it's all healed," she wiggled the finger in front of her face.

Aizawa made her go see Recovery Girl just to be sure it was fully healed.

"But Aizawa sensei sure fooled us, he made me think, 'This is how it is at the top!' but he deceived us," the boy frowned as they kept walking.

_'And I thought he was scary,'_ she giggled, _'he's just super serious,'_

"Hey! You two! Headed for the station?"

"Infinity girl," Iida said.

"I'm Ochaco Uraraka! You are Tenya Iida! And you're Deku Midoriya!" she huffed.

"Deku?" Izuku asked, surprised.

"Hmm? During the test, Explodo-boy called you Deku,"

"Um... My name is Izuku, Deku is just Kacchan being a bully..." she chuckled at the nickname.

"A derogatory pet name, huh?"

"Ah sorry, it's just that I thought it screamed _'do your best!'_"

Izuku thought about it and looked at the slightly taller girl's smiling face, the name had of course been given to her by Katsuki in a way more joking scenario, but it had turned into a mean thing that not even she understood where it came from, but she never hated it and she did believe that if he ever stopped calling her Deku she would assume he was mad at her.

"Thanks! If you want, you can call me Deku then, or Izu-chan," she smiled at them.

"You can call me Ocha-chan!" the other said.

Then the three of them walked away, chatting and laughing.

* * *

In the morning, they have regular subjects like English or Mathematics. At lunchtime, they eat at the cafeteria. Food made by the Cook Hero: Lunch Rush. And then in the afternoon classes, it's time for Hero Basic Training!

"I HAVE COME THROUGH THE DOOR, LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!" The number one hero All Might yelled as he entered the room in all ways but normal.

He wore his silver age costume and walked with confidence into the classroom.

"Hero Basic Training! The class that'll put you through all sorts of special training to mould you into heroes!" he pulled from somewhere a card that wrote 'battle', "No time to dally, today is battle training!"

The class cheered.

From the side of the room, doors opened showing numbered cases.

"Your costumes!" All Might said.

And the class cheered even louder.

"Looking good is very important, ladies and gentlemen!" he said as each one took their costumes and headed to the changing rooms.

"Look alive now! Because from the moment you dawn your costumes, you will all be heroes!" he called behind them.

Izuku's costume had been drawn by her mom, then sent to be made by some agency.

It was a green skintight jumpsuit that covered from her wrists to her thighs and opened on her back so that her wings could move freely. She had a hood with bunny ears that covered her eyes and the top of her head, leaving her curly hair flow on her back and her mouth guard was hanging on her neck. She had her red utility belt that came diagonally on her hips, and her red shoes, plus her black knees and elbow pads.

"You look good Midoriya!" a tall, black-haired girl praised, "I'm Momo Yaoyorozu, you can call me Momo!"

"You look good too Momo!" Izuku praised her back.

All the girls did the same, praising and presenting themselves.

When they came out of the changing room, the boys were already there.

To the left, she saw Katsuki.

Only the sight of him made her blush.

He glanced up at her, and she looked away, not seeing the slight blush on the ash-blonde's cheeks.

"Hey, Deku-chan!" Uraraka called her towards her and who she assumed was Iida.

"Whoa! Ocha-chan! You look very cute!" she told her as the girl had left before she could see her.

"I just wish I had been more specific in my request, it's so puffy and curvy!" she laughed.

"Are we all here?" All Might asked, "You guys are all looking good! Today we'll be moving to step 2, indoor antipersonnel battle training! Villain battles are most commonly seen outdoors, but the most heinous and clever villains are more likely to appear indoors, now you are going to be split into villains and hero teams, and face off in 2-on-2 indoor battles,"

"What determines victory?"

"How much damage can we inflict?"

"Are you threatening to expel someone, like Aizawa-sensei?"

"Who makes the teams?"

"One at a time! My quirk isn't super hearing!" All Might pleaded, pulling out a script, "The deal is, the villains will be hiding a nuclear weapon somewhere on their hideout, and the heroes have to go in and take care of it! The heroes have a limited amount of time to either capture the villains or secure the weapon, the villains must or let the time run out or capture the heroes. Your partners will be drowned by lots,"

Then he started pulling the names out, and it started already somewhat problematic.

Group A: Midoriya and Bakugo.

Group B: Todoroki and Shouji.

Group C: Yaoyorozu and Mineta.

Group D: Iida and Uraraka.

Group E: Ashido and Aoyama.

Group F: Sato and Kouda.

Group G: Jiro and Sero.

Group H: Tokoyami and Asui.

Group I: Hagakure and Ojiro.

Group J: Kirishima and Kaminari.

Izuku and Katsuki's eyes meet the instant their names were called, but with different expression in them.

Izuku was relieved to have been paired with someone she knew but slightly scared for the person in question being the angry blond.

Katsuki's eyes, however, had so many feelings together that she couldn't understand, not that he could either, but one he recognised was anger, so he rode on that.

"Well, good luck, Dekuchan!" Uraraka said with a sad smiled then she hugged the smaller girl.

"And now, the first ones are group A as heroes and group J as villains! The villain team goes in first. The timer begins in 5 minutes when the heroes go in, the rest of us will watch via CCTV," the hero informed, "Kirishima, Kaminari, you boys have to embrace a criminal mindset, don't hold back! Though I'll stop you if you take things too far..."

Izuku and Katsuki reunited in front of the building where the exercise was taking place both in dead silence.

"Uhm… maybe we should-" Izuku tried.

"I will go in first, fight those idiots and you better not be in my way or I will blow you away," he said never looking her way, he lifted his gauntlet, "you know very well how my quirk works, this gauntlet store my sweat to make a bigger explosion, so if you get in my way…" Katsuki looked at her, "get in my way... and I won't hesitate to use my full power against you,"

She gulped, "Why are you angry, Kacchan? I-"

"'Why I'm angry'?" He turned quickly, "you lied to me, hid things and you have the guts to ask me, why I'm angry?"

She took a step back.

"You better not do anything to piss me off because I swear I will blow you away," he had gotten so close that she could count his eyelashes.

"I never lied to you," she said as calmly as the situation let her.

"Yeah whatever," he said as the exercise began.

Katsuki stomped his way to the entrance of the fake hideout, Izuku right behind him.

As the girl walked carefully, checking every corner, the boy walked as if he were at the mall.

"Kacchan! Wait up!" She said when they were already on the second floor.

"Why would I-" but he was cut off as Kaminari came up in front of them.

"Sorry guys but this battle ends here, " The blond said getting ready to discharge at them.

Katsuki blew out of his way right away, blowing past Izuku.

She, on the other hand, jumped forward. The electric type boy went to punch her, but she dodged and hit him in the gut, making him fall back on his butt.

"Get out of the way!" Katsuki yelled as he got up from where he fell.

But she didn't listen, she kept fighting against the other boy who at every touch shocked her.

_'I can't use One for All! It could kill him!'_ she thought as she kept at it.

Suddenly Katsuki came rocketing back, knocking Kaminari back with an explosion as he charged full power.

Their powers collided and Izuku had just the time to make one move with her forearm charged with One for All to protect herself, but the arm was still sore and a deeper colour than it should be.

"Don't get in the way!" Katsuki yelled at her again as he came closer.

"I was fighting!" she said back, massaging her now sore and glowing arm.

"You-" but she wasn't paying attention anymore, she got him out of her way and they both saw their blond classmate as he made unintelligible sounds.

They shared a look, Izuku answered Katsuki's confused look by a shock of her shoulders, she got closer to the boy and made a knot with the ribbon given to them to capture the other group on his arms, tying them together.

They turned to the corner where Kaminari had come from and walked more carefully, checking each door for the weapon or Kirishima. By the end of the corridor, there was only one closed-door left.

"I will take care of hair for brains you go for the weapon," he said, "don't get in the way this time with that arm,"

"I will get on the way if necessary... and I'm fine," she said holding the nearly healed up arm.

He started to growl, angry again. They neared the door slowly.

She put her hand on the doorknob as he readied himself to blow away anything when she opened the door.

When she did, they found a long room, it was just a bit wider than the corridor they just left, all the way to the end of it was the fake weapon, but less than 3 meters was Kirishima with a battle stance. It was easy to understand why they chose this room, now nor Izuku nor Katsuki could attack by the sides, and they could pass him unnoticed.

"Hey, there, guys! I'm sorry, but I won't be letting you pass," he copied his partner.

"I'll get you out of the way, then!" Katsuki yelled.

Both boys jumped, Katsuki blowing at Kirishima, who hardened his whole body. The redhead was punching and hitting, not receiving much damage from the blond, who dodged all attacks.

As they fought Izuku watched, slowly walking towards the weapon, her body flushed against the right wall.

But as she got closer, she heard All Might's voice echoed through the room.

**"Bakugo if you use that weapon, you will blow everything and your partner away!"**

"No, I won't!"

Izuku turned around and saw that the blond had opened a compartment on his right gauntlet, ready to pull a grenade pin.

She remembered what he had said about it storing his explosive sweat.

"Kacchan! Don't do it!" She yelled, trying to find a way out of the explosion's trajectory.

**"Don't do it, Bakugo! You'll kill them!"**

"They shouldn't be in the way!" And pulled the pin.

Kirishima hardened his whole body just in time but Izuku didn't have anywhere to run so she dropped to her knees, her wings tight against her back to try to diminish the burnt area.

_'Punch!'_ her brain yelled.

So that's what she did, she powered her right arm up with One for All and punched the burning blast, receiving the blow with all force.

The explosion hit her face, arms and wings, her mask and gloves were burnt away, feathers flew around them as her body went flying, hitting the weapon. The glass windows were shattered, and everything shook from the collision of quirks.

When the dust settled down, everyone was able to see the damage.

Kirishima was sprawled on the floor, his body back to its original form and hardness.

Katsuki had his eyes shining with surprise and almost choked face anyone had ever seen from his place on the floor, his arm still raised and his hair blown back.

But Izuku took the cake. Her whole body was glowing as it leaned on the weapon, the front of her arms was burned as were her face, hair and wings. Her legs were slightly strained from trying to hold her ground.

"Weapon secured," she said just loud enough to be heard by All Might over the coms.

**"Group A wins the battle!"** The pro hero yells, and Izuku's body went limp.

And as her body hit the ground, Katsuki was sure that the sickening sound of it would haunt his dreams.


	6. Chapter 6: Class 1-A

Katsuki was in shock.

The moment her body hit the weapon, all his rage had vanished. The only thing that remained was regret.

_'What did I do?'_

He ran towards her, ignoring Kirishima, kneeling beside her and taking her into his arms. He touched their foreheads.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, only for her to hear.

"Bakugo kid, I'm sorry I told you it would kill them, I know they are strong but I needed something, anything to make you stop," the man grabbed him by the shoulder, "let them take her to Recovery Girl," he said, pulling him away a bit.

"No!" Katsuki pulled back, getting up, Izuku in his arms, "I'll take her,"

He walked away, not listening to All Might's protest as he hid his face under his bangs and cursed himself all the way to the infirmary.

He kicked the door to Recovery Girl's office, scaring the poor, old woman.

"What was that for-" her eyes went wide, "put her down,"

He delicately put Izuku down in a bed and sat opposite to the woman.

She checked the green-haired girl, then kissed her on the forehead.

"She'll be fine, her healing quirk must have kicked in before she passed out, but I'll help a bit," she said as the girl's body relaxed a bit then sat beside him, "what happened to her?"

"I did,"

"You seem guilty, that's good,"

"Why would that be good, you old hag?"

"Because it means you care," she smiled.

He looked away, not wanting to admit to anything.

"She'll wake up at any minute, I need to go talk to Aizawa about this, I'll be back in a minute," she got up, "try not to give her any more scars,"

"Tch," he clicked his tongue and watched the other fights in the now lighted TV.

* * *

When Izuku woke up, she was blinded by the white walls of the infirmary, she was getting tired of waking up in hospital rooms.

She was in the point of stretching when she felt a weight on her stomach.

Lifting herself a bit by the elbow, she saw a sleeping Katsuki, sitting in a chair beside her, his head laying on her stomach.

She was a bit shocked, but she smiled through a heavy blush, remembering when they were kids as they slept after a whole day of running around.

She put her fingers in his hair, slowly stroking it like she used to do when they were just 4.

His eyes fluttered open, then locked with hers.

He straightened up, trailing his eyes all over her body, making her blush more.

"You're okay," he sighed, sitting back on his chair.

"What are you doing here, Kacchan?" she asked.

"Making sure you didn't die on me," he stared at her.

Her eyes went wide, was he worried?

"Were you... umm... worried?"

He sat up straight again, eyes wide like a deer caught on car lights.

"Umm..." he scratched the back of his head, "I just... I'm sorry," his voice was nothing more than a whisper.

"Did you just say you were sorry?"

"Don't make me do it again!" he snapped, that was the Katsuki she knew!

She laughed, like she hadn't done in a long time, the laugh that only came when he was the cause of it.

"Why are laughing, nerd?"

"'Cause you're just too funny Kacchan," she said when her laughter died down.

"I ain't funny, Izuku,"

"And since when do you call me by my name?" she asked remembering what Ochaco had said the day before.

"Since you became not worthless or useless anymore,"

She sat upright in front of him, opening her wings slightly so she wouldn't pull any feathers. With a big smile that made his heart miss a beat, she said, "That isn't what it means anymore, Now it means 'You can do it'."

He frowned ready to snap again when it dawned on him. She forgave him. It took a lot out of his shoulders, but he was still set on making it up to her, and to keep his promise. So he smirked back at her, making her blush redder and look away. He got up and opened the door.

"Get changed, Deku, the extras must be waiting,"

She got up and switched back into her uniform, took her costume and put it back in its case. She had to take it to the support's department so that they could put it back together.

Getting out of the room she found Katsuki waiting for her, leaning against the wall.

They walked together towards their classroom.

"You know," Izuku called his attention, "You shouldn't be sorry, I got in the way when shouldn't have just like you said,"

"And what will you do about it?"

But she opened the door at that moment and found herself bombarded by her classmates.

"Hey, everyone! Midoriya is back!" Kirishima said, "that was a surprisingly manly act on our fight! I felt your punch back there! Wasn't expecting such power from such a small girl!"

She blushed at the praise. If her classmates kept doing that, she wasn't sure she could handle it. But she felt bad for not helping- no, she did right not to jump in front of him, she had to trust them. And he was just fine. It was just her damn protective instincts that kicked in and put her on the line when she didn't need to be, exactly as she had been explaining to Katsuki.

"Nice dodging with Kaminari," Mina said.

"We were all pumped after your match!" another guy said.

"We were all talking about the battle!" the redhead said.

"I'm Mina Ashido!" The pink-everything presented herself again to those who didn't know her.

"Tsuyu Asui, call me Tsuyu," the frog-like girl followed.

"I'm Sato," the guy with big lips said.

"Get out of the way extras! Don't you see that we want to get in!" Katsuki yelled from behind her, pulling her behind him towards their sets.

"Deku-chan!" Uraraka came running, "Are you okay?"

"Ocha-chan! Yeah, it's fine, look," she turned around to show no burn marks or scars.

"Come Deku," Katsuki threw her bag at her and grabbed her free arm pulling her again.

They walked away in silence until he broke it.

"Are you going to explain how you have a strengthening quirk?"

She stopped in her tracks.

"Umm... it's just a part of my quirk, Kacchan,"

"Don't lie to me Deku," the look in his eyes were pleading.

She sighed, hating he could see right through her, "I can't say much... but I got it from someone else, I can't say who, you just have to know that I can't control this borrowed quirk yet, but when I do I will overcome you with it,"

"Borrowed, that's impossible! And here I thought you would be honest with me, you are just making a fool out of me, right?! I mean, I thought I was okay with being led to victory by you because I nearly killed you, but looking at everyone's fights I can't measure to them! Like that Icy bastard!" His fingers pulled at his hair and the hand he was holding hers squeezed it until her knuckles were white, "Dammit! Why did I have to win because of you Deku? I was supposed to be the strong one! From here on out I will beat you," He looked at her, eyes full of angry tears, "Enjoy your win because I won't accept it as mine, it won't happen again," he let go of her hand and walked away.

"Kac-" she tried to explain, to call him back.

"BAKUGOOO!" All Might came flying towards them, cutting her off, "Let me tell you, that sort of self-respect is important! Without a shadow of a doubt, you'll be a great hero! From now on, you just have to..."

"Get off of me, All Might," he shook his shoulder, "I'll surpass you too!" and he finally walked away.

"Ah, being a teacher sure is hard work,"

_'Kacchan's fuse had been lit, but my goals haven't changed. I would keep chasing after him so that one day, I would surpass him,'_

"You were going to tell him, weren't you?" All Might turned back to her.

"I'm sorry, I haven't even told my mom, but... I just had to tell him something!"

"I know you care about Bakugo, but this is dangerous!" the man sighed, "However, I know how hard your situation is, you will need all the help you can get," he stared down at her, his hand going to his face, "you mustn't tell another soul!"

"Does that mean I can tell him?" her eyes shone with hope.

"If you think he will keep the secret, but before that let him cool down,"

"Thanks, All Might!" then she ran towards her home, slightly flying when she had the opportunity.

* * *

When Izuku was arriving in front of the gates of UA the next day, she was nearly attacked by the press, who were asking about All Might.

She was able to escape by a hair's breadth though, flying over the gates.

Shortly she was joined by Ochaco and Tenya, who didn't have much luck and had to go through the swarm of cameras and microphones. Katsuki was further behind yelling all the way.

It definitely wasn't a good time for her to tell him about One for All. He seemed angrier than usual.

Then Aizawa came and shooed the cameras and reporters away.

But one of the reporters tried to come in, making the security system kick in, closing the gates in her face.

By then, they were already back in their classroom.

"Good work everyone with yesterday's battle training, I've looked over your grades and evaluations," he placed some papers on his desk, "Bakugo," he then called out, "grow up already, stop wasting your talent,"

"Got it," the boy grumbled in front of her.

"And it seems that Midoriya ended in the infirmary again," she jolted in her set, "learn to control that quirk of yours, training isn't going to cut it, don't make me repeat myself but you have potential, assuming you can overcome your problem,"

"Okay!" she nodded.

"Now, on with homeroom business, time to pick a class president,"

"Such a normal, school-like thing!" the class cheered.

Everyone was talking now, pleading to be chosen.

In normal schools, being the class president meant that they would be in charge of mundane tasks nobody wants to do. But in the Hero course at UA, it implied leading the class... A position suited for a top hero in the making.

"Everyone! Quiet down!" Tenya yelled over the other voices, "leading the many is a great responsibility...! But ambition does not equate to ability, so I suggest we use democracy, then I put forward the motion... that our true leader must be chosen by election!"

Izuku giggled a bit seeing that her friend's hand was the highest of all of them.

"But we don't know each other that well," Tsuyu said.

"And everyone will vote for themselves," Eijirou exclaimed.

"That's why anyone who gets multiple votes will be the best suited," he explained.

So that's what they did, and Izuku was dumbfounded.

"I got 3 votes?" her eyes were wide.

"So your president is Midoriya, and your vice president is Yaoyorozu," Aizawa confirmed as the bell rang for lunch.

Katsuki glared at her a bit when they all got up to leave the classroom, making her get out of his sight quickly.

Izuku sat at a table with Tenya and Ochaco on the cafeteria.

"I'm worried whether or not I can be a good class president," she said.

"You can," Uraraka said bluntly.

"Don't worry, Midoriya, your grit and decisiveness in a pinch, make you the perfect candidate for the position. That's why I voted for you," Iida explained.

"But didn't you want to be class president too, Tenya-kun?" Uraraka asked.

"As I said before, ambition and suitability are very different concepts, so I made a choice I felt was correct," he ate his food.

"Tenya," Uraraka called their attention, "are you a rich kid?"

_'So straight forward!'_

He finished munching whatever was on his mouth, "yes, I'm the second son of the Iida family, a hero family," he explained, "Are you acquainted with the Turbo Hero: Ingenium?"

Izuku jumped in her chair, "Of course! He has 65 sidekicks at his office in Tokyo!" she exclaimed with a bright smile, "Is he your brother?!"

"Yes! He leads the people with adherence to rules. A truly beloved hero! He's the reason why I want to pursue the hero life! But I'm not ready to lead yet," he smiled, "Like the superior candidate, it was right you got the role, Midoriya,"

The girls stared at him, shocked for they had never seen the only boy of their group smile.

They chatted calmly until an alarm started blaring: "Security level 3 has been broken, all students, please evacuate in an orderly fashion," the speakers ordered.

Not that anyone listened to it.

"What's security level 3?" Tenya asked as they got up.

"Someone has infiltrated the building!" an upper schoolmate said.

They all ran towards the corridors to get out, shoving and pushing, not caring who was in the way.

Izuku was shoved against the boy in front of her, who turned out to be Todoroki, one of her classmates.

He caught her before she fell, and both were thrown at the wall, her wing bones pressing against her back, the boy's arms went on both sides of her face, his body protecting her from the mass.

Then they saw Iida flying, then hit the exit sign, "EVERYONE! EVERYTHING'S FINE! IT'S JUST THE PRESS!" he yelled making everyone shut up, and finally dispersed.

"Thanks, Todoroki-kun!" Izuku exclaimed up at the boy, as he put some distance between them.

"You are welcome, Midoriya," he said in his monotone voice and a slight pink tint on his cheeks, certainly from the sudden exercise.

He walked away and she joined her friends.

When they were finally safe and sound in their classroom, Izuku and Yaoyorozu were sent to the front of the class.

"Well, we'd like to choose the other students for the student council, but first..." Izuku paused, smiling nervously at Tenya, "I believe that Iida is better suited to be our class representant," she said more confidently shocking everyone, "I am honoured to have received the indication for the job, however, as we all saw outside, he was the only one who was calm enough to control the situation, so I think he is the correct choice for the job,"

"You're right, even if you are also a good choice Midoriya," Eijirou said.

"He was the beacon to the emergency exit," Denki jocked, making everyone laugh.

"I'll accept the job," the said boy got up, smiling at his friend.

"Exit Sign Iida!" the class chanted.


	7. Chapter 7: Attack on USJ

"For today's Basic Hero Training All Might, myself and another hero will supervise," Aizawa informed them from the front of their class with his normal tired and indifferent voice.

_'Special class?'_ Izuku asked herself.

"What're we going to do, Sensei?" Sero asked from beside her.

"Today, it's Rescue training!"

The class started chatting about their opinions on what they were doing that day.

"I'm not done yet," their Sensei said shutting them up, "It's optional for you to put your costumes or not, as some of them will only impair your performances, the training site is quite remote, so we'll be going by bus, now get ready,"

They all took their cases and left to change.

Izuku didn't wait in line like the rest of the class, her costume had been destroyed in the fight and it would be a couple of days till it was ready, so she headed directly to the changing room and put her uniform on, adding to it some gloves, her knee and elbow patches plus her mask.

"Hey, Deku-chan! Why aren't you using your costume?" Uraraka asked coming up to her in front of the bus with the rest of their class.

"Oh, it didn't make it through Kacchan's blow on the battle," she scratched her neck, "the school's support company is repairing it, -"

"Everyone! Line up and sit according to your I.D. number!" Iida called out from the bus' door.

"I'm starting to doubt your choice to leave this work to Iida, Midoriya," Denki came up to the girls, making them laugh as they went past their friend.

They entered the bus, but poor Iida's way was shattered by the pattern of the sits.

Izuku, because of her wings stayed up, holding herself from falling by the bars in between Kyoka and Ochaco's seats.

"Hey, Midoriya!" Asui called from the front of the bus.

"Yes, Asui,"

"Call me Tsuyu, your quirk resembles All Might's,"

That caught her by surprise, making her sweat a bit as she spared a quick glance at Katsuki who seemed uninterested, "re-really?! No! I mean-"

"Hold on, Tsu, All Might doesn't break his bones, and of course he doesn't have wings," Kirishima flapped his hands, mimicking the appendages, "but that kind of pure strength-enhancing quirk is impressive, not like my hardening, good on a fight but nothing more,"

"I disagree," Izuku caught her classmates' attention as she gushed over the red head's quirk, slightly swinging between the rows of seats, "You're wholly OPed against piercing quirks, and you could be the best in hostage situations if you train hard enough!"

The boy blushed from her smile.

"But don't forget that heroes also have to worry about the popular appeal," Aoyama said in front of Kirishima, "my navel laser is both strong and cool," he smiled.

"As long as it doesn't blow your stomach!" Ashido said, "talking about strong quirks, I think the strongest, are both Todoroki and Bakugo's,"

"But Bakugo's unhinged. He will never be popular with that attitude," Asui said.

Izuku looked at said boy as he threatened to kill them all.

"It's funny that we barely had time together and we already know that you have garbage as personality," Kaminari said.

"Wanna die Pikachu?" Katsuki shouted.

_'Kacchan is being bullied! The world is upside down!'_ Izuku mentally screamed as she stood in between the blonds.

"Your mouth can't get fouler Bakugo," Tsuyu rolled her eyes.

"What'd'ya say ya frog?!" he shouted, his upper body stretched so he could try to grab at her.

Izuku's hand went up to his arm, his eyes snapping to hers, "please Kacchan! Calm down,"

He huffed and shoved her hand away, sitting back down and grumbling about, unnerving extras and fucking freckles.

Before she could say anything else, Aizawa called out, "We're here! Look sharp!"

The bus stopped and they emptied the bus, entering the facility.

_'WOAH'_ was the only word on everyone's minds.

To their right was a big blue dome where they could see strong winds twirling inside and heavy rains banging: the downpour zone; beside it there was a lake: the flood zone; and further, on that side, there was a red dome where the lights were flickering from a fire: the conflagration zone.

To their immediate left there was a city in ruins, houses destroyed and buildings hanging on scrap: the ruin zone; further away there were two mountains, the closest to them had destroyed houses on its flank and very unstable looking grounds: the landslide zone; and the other one was step, with fall-to-your-death high type of cliffs: the mountain zone.

"Welcome everyone! This is the Unforeseen Simulation Joint! USJ for short, here you'll find every kind of disaster simulation for your training," a hero said.

"It's the Space Hero: Thirteen! She's the best in rescue scenarios!" Uraraka and Izuku cheered.

"Where's All Might?" Aizawa asked as he looked around.

"He reached his limit this morning," Thirteen raised her three fingers.

"Irresponsible," Aizawa sighed, "Okay, start then,"

"Before we start, I'd like to make some points. As I'm sure some of you know, my quirk is called Black Hole, it can suck and destroy anything,"

"And you use it to save people from all kinds of disaster!" Izuku pointed out, Uraraka nodding all the while.

"Yes, but it could undoubtedly kill, I've no doubt that some of you have powers that could too," she looked around, "In our super-powered society, the use of quirks is heavily restricted and monitored because of that risk. It may seem that it's stable, but we must never forget that it only takes a wrong move or wrong decision, with an uncontrollable quirk for death to follow. During the physical fitness test you did with Aizawa, you learned your potential, with your battle training with All Might, you saw the danger your quirks can put yourself and others in, with me you'll learn how to use them to save lives, our powers are not meant to harm, so I hope you can leave knowing how to save,"

Everyone applauded the hero as she bowed.

"Great now-" Aizawa started when they heard a strange sound from the plaza.

They all went to look.

Right beside the fountain was a black swirl of mist, from it came a scene straight from a horror movie, but before they could even understand what was happening, Aizawa was shouting at them to get close to each other and out of the building.

"Thirteen, protect the students!" he yelled putting his goggles on.

"What the heck's going on? Are those part of the exercise?" Kirishima asked.

"DON'T MOVE! THOSE ARE VILLAINS!"

_'What an irony' _Izuku thought as she watched the villains purr out of the mist _'they showing up during our rescue training, right when we are supposed to learn how to save, now we will have to do it for real!' _

At that moment, the group 1-A of UA learned what the pros were up against. _'What they faced in the field... was evil on earth!'_

"Villains?! Are they dumb? Breaking in a school for heroes?" Mineta screamed.

"Sensei? Aren't there intruder sensors around?" Momo asked, panic dripping from her voice.

"Of course,"

"So it means it isn't working, they must have someone with a quirk responsible for it, and maybe they are just in this part of the school," Todoroki proposed, "being far away, at a time where there wouldn't be too many people, they aren't that dumb, maybe they even have an objective. It does look like a well-coordinated sneak attack,"

"Thirteen! Begin the evacuation protocol! Kaminari try to send a signal for help!"

"Yes, Sensei!"

"Are you going to fight them?! Alone? There are too many of them, you can't nullify all their quirks! And you are a quick fighter, a head-on battle isn't your style!" Izuku tried to stop her Sensei.

"No good hero has only one card up his sleeve, Midoriya, learn that, take care of them Thirteen,"

And he jumped into the group of villains, his binding cloth throwing them around, and nullifying quirks left and right.

Izuku observed her Sensei fight, feeling bad for doubting him.

"Come on Izuku! It's not the time for analysis!" Iida called as she started to mumble.

But right in front of them, the black mist appeared, gold eye-like spots were the only thing that stood out on him.

"I don't think so," he said, "Greetings, we're the league of villains, forgive us for showing up unannounced, but today we came to UA, the nest of heroism... to take the life... of the one you call 'Symbol of Peace', All Might," his voice was so calm as he said it. It sounded like he just arrived in a supermarket, and was asking where something was, "We were led to believe that he would be present today, it seems our source was wrong? Well, no matter, my role remains unchanged," he said circling them with his mist.

Thirteen uncapped one of her fingers to use her quirk, but before she could use it, Katsuki and Kirishima jumped at the mist guy, quirks blazing.

"Ya ain't gonna do anything! Betcha didn't see that coming!" Kirishima yelled as he touched the ground behind the mist which he had gone right through with Katsuki.

"That was close... you may just be students, but you sure are the best of the best,"

"Both of you, get back," Thirteen tried to warn them, but it was already too late.

Both boys were engulfed by the mist, disappearing from their sight, "You will be scattered, and tortured and then slain!"

And they were all sent away, dispersed throughout the facility.

Izuku found herself falling straight towards the lake.

_'The Flood Zone!'_

Her wings flapping against her torso because of the backwards position didn't help her much, she closed them and in a hurried movement flipped so she was falling face first, then opened her wings soaring over right before hitting the water and stopped on the boat that was nearby.

Then Asui came flying from under the water, Mineta under her arm.

She landed beside her, letting go of the boy.

"Tsuyu-chan!" Izuku ran to her, checking her for any kind of injury.

"We seem to be in trouble here Izuchan,"

"They knew our schedule," Izuku started to pace, "They must have been the cause of the media yesterday, so they could get inside and scout for intel, just like Todoroki-kun said, they've been planning!"

"But it's impossible to kill All Might, he's All Might for God's sake! He'll trash them," The small boy said.

"Mineta, if they are here, it's because they must've found a way, otherwise, why would they be here?" Tsuyu pointed out on her matter of factly voice.

The boy went pale, finally understanding the situation.

"M-M-Midoriyaaaa!" he pulled at her arm suddenly pointing at the villains on the water who started to get agitated and circle them.

"It all just makes sense if they have figured a way to kill All Might, but why though, because he's the Symbol of Peace who stands against villains and evil?" then it dawned on her, but she couldn't say it, not with the others right there, so she faked ignorance and continued on, "but, if there's even a speck of chance they can kill him, then we have to do something,"

They were all going to fight.

For their lives.

For their friends.

For their school.

For All Might.

And for peace.

"We are going to fight!" She yelled, expecting nods of approval from her classmates

"WHAT?! Are you suicidal? Those down there are villains! They will kill us!" the boy was panicking, "We should stay here and wait for All Might to show and save us,"

"Mineta, the guys down there are meant for water, so they must have known about USJ,"

"So what?"

"So their Intel was really precise, but there's something that's bugging me,"

"And what might that be?" the boy said sarcastically.

"They warped Tsuyu-chan here,"

They looked at the frog girl.

"So what you are saying is that they were told about everything but the students," Asui confirmed.

"And what's your point?"

"For all they know, we could control the water or just be useless in this kind of situation,-"

"- So we have the advantage," Asui completed.

The girls nodded.

"But why don't you fly us away Midoriya?" the purple-haired boy asked.

She looked at the villains that surrounded them, it was obvious that if they only tried to escape they would follow them and take them out.

So they had to do it first.

"They won't let us leave this place, Mineta, they would take us down in a matter of seconds, so we have to be sure they will be down before we leave," she explained.

"So what Izuchan?" the frog girl pressed.

"Their strategy is to overwhelm us, having the advantage of numbers and experience, so the only way to win is to exploit the fact that they don't know about our quirks,"

"I can jump really high, stick to walls, my tongue stretches to 20 meters, and I can secrete poisonous mucus," the frog girl explained her quirk.

"I have my wings, of course, I have enhanced strength and speed, but it breaks my bones, however, I also have self-healing properties that come along," Izuku tried to explain without giving too much away.

"And I can pluck the balls on my head out, and they'll stick to anything that isn't me," the boy said as he did so, sticking a ball on the wall, "And another will grow back in its place,"

The girls stared at him.

"As I said, we just gotta wait to be rescued! My quirk is useless in this situation!" he cried out.

"Of course not! You have a great quirk! We just have to match it with ours and the circumstance-"

**BOOOM!**

The boat rocketed as one of the villains started getting impatient.

"He split the boat!" said Asui.

Mineta started throwing his balls at the water, crying all the way.

"Why did you do that? Now they now your quirk!" Izuku pulled him away from the edge.

She looked at the villains in the water, _'They are on guard! They ain't touching them,'_

"That boat will go down in less than a minute, once you're in the water, you'll be dead!" a villain said.

"AHHHH! HE'S RIGHT! WE ARE GOING TO DIE!" Mineta cried.

"Mineta, are you sure you want to be a hero?" Tsuyu asked from her crouched position.

"SHADDUP! YOU ARE CRAZY IF YOU ARE NOT SCARED! WE WERE FREAKING MIDDLE SCHOOLERS A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO! I NEVER THOUGHT WE WOULD BE IN A LIFE-OR-DEATH SITUATION SO SOON! I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE THE TIME TO GROPE YAOYOROZU'S BOOBS!" he yelled.

"We are all scared, Mineta, but we have to do something!" Izuku said, staring at the water, then she remembered, "'The moment when the enemy thinks they've won represents your best chance to take over,' All Might said it once in an interview," she quoted calmly, "This is the only way we can win!"

They could hear the villains talking to each other, snickering a bit at them.

Rage boiled like lava on her veins, she stood up on the railing wings opened wide, turned around to her friend and said: "Tsuyu! Take Mineta out of here! I'll distract them!" and flew out, as her friends jumped out. She dived at the villains, screaming at the top of her lungs, "GO TO HELL!" Kacchan style, she really did spend too much time with the explosive boy.

She got ready to attack as the villains taunted her.

She then gave a Finger Smach, reducing damage but still using 100%, shattering her finger. The power sent her up, wings flapping again.

The water that was hit by the powerful release of the quirk parted, sending the villains flying.

She then stabilised her wings and soared away, healing her finger as she followed Asui and Mineta towards the shore.

The small boy started throwing his balls at the water again, sticking the villains together as the lake fell back.

"By giving a big shock to the water's surface... it spreads... and then it rushes back into the centre," Asui contemplated as Izuku got closer to them in the air, "very clever Izuchan! And looks like we just won our first challenge,"

They all watched the damage left behind, "good job you two," Asui complimented as they landed on the outskirts of the Flood Zone.

Izuku spent all the time they landed in the plaza borderline muttering.

"Could you stop, Izuchan? That's scary," Asui asked, "but what now?"

"We should try to call for help, I think we should follow the shoreline and try to make it to the entrance, and avoid the plaza altogether," she pointed with her good left finger.

"Looks like Aizawa Sensei is fighting a large number of them in the plaza," Mineta pointed out as they stopped to watch him.

"There are just too many... he's more than holding his own, but it's too much, and he's there just to save us!" Izuku started.

"Don't you dare Midoriya!" Mineta whisper-yelled.

"I'm not saying to dive right into the mele, just to watch and help wherever we can," Izuku frowned.

And then one of the villains, the one who was covered in hands, jumped at their Sensei, grabbing his scarf to pull him closer. Aizawa punched the man in the gut. However, the man grabbed his elbow which started to fall apart.

But their Sensei was a pro and got away by punching the villain, skillfully dodging the other villains.

Then a big guy with bird beak-like mouth and their brains showing grabbed his arm and crushed it, blood dripping from his arm. Next, he slammed their Sensei to the ground.

The three stayed frozen in fear as they stared in horror at the pro hero.

"Tomura Shigaraki," the black mist appeared near the handyman.

"Kurogiri, is Thirteen dead?" they heard the guy named Shigaraki ask.

"She is disabled, but one student got away,"

"Oh?" Shigaraki started scratching his neck and face, "Kurogiri, if you weren't our scapegoat I would turn you into dust, there's no chance we can win against dozens of heroes, it's Game Over man! Let's go, we're leaving,"

"Leaving?!" the three whispered-yelled.

"We are saved!" Mineta jumped at Tsuyu, groping her boob.

She then shoved him away from her and held him under the water.

"I have a bad feeling Izuchan," the girl said.

"To come to this lengths and then... just leave,"

_'Didn't they say they wanted to kill All Might? It'll just be worst for UA if they got away!'_

"But before we do that," the blue-haired man said, "let's leave some bodies as gifts for All Might," he then pointed towards them.

And before they could react, he was already in front of them, his hand extended in front of him going straight towards Tsuyu's face.

Izuku then remembered what happened to their Sensei when the man called Tomura Shigaraki touched it.

She went to stop him, stretching her right wing in front of her friends' face. If he was going to destroy something be it something she could heal quickly. She moved it just so it would send both of them farther behind it but not hurt them.

And as his finger came in contact with the skin under her feathers... nothing happened.

"You really are the coolest hero, ain't ya Eraserhead?"

Izuku looked back and saw him looking at them, his hair flowing around. But the bird guy smashed the man's face on the ground, stopping his quirk, as he crushed her wing down and went to grab at Tsuyu and Mineta.

_'Oh no, I have to get us out of here!'_

Without thinking, Izuku powered herself up with One for All and went to punch the man away.

"TSUYU GET MINETA AND GET OUT OF HERE!" She yelled, "SMASH!"

"Nomu," he said simply.

And her fist connected, her arm not breaking.

However, in front of her wasn't the target she had before.

It was what Shigaraki had called _'Nomu'_.

And he didn't even have a scratch on him.

"Woaw, 'smash!' huh? Fan of All Might I presume? Such a shame to destroy such a small and cute girl but you are on the wrong side kid,"

The Nomu grabbed her arm, squeezing it, Shigaraki went for Tsuyu and Mineta.

The frog girl, however, was already jumping away from him, but she sent her tong towards Izuku.

Shigaraki went to grab it again, and Izuku shouted, "No Tsuyu go! Please!" and sending her an unsure look, her friend hopped further away from the plaza, staring at the girl trapped by the villains with fear in her big eyes.

"Aren't you a hero?" The hand-man asked with sarcasm as he got closer to the girl as she was held by her arm by the Nomu, never touching the ground.

She couldn't actually do much, she was afraid of trying to use One for All and still be locked in the tight grip the brain's guy had her, and her wing had been crushed and some of her feathers and the tip of her wing had been destroyed by his quirk.

"What do you want from us?" she asked, so glad her voice didn't show her fear.

"Oh, I want to kill the Symbol, and show everyone that this society is doomed," his red eyes locked with hers, "but apparently his Highness the Symbol of Peace is too mighty to show up so will have to destroy his student,"

He reached his hand towards her face when a loud bang was heard throughout the USJ.

A figure slowly entered, looming over everyone, his signature smile missing as he said, "Fear not... I... AM HERE!"

"All Might!" the students that were around yelled, relief washing over them.

"I had a bad feeling in my gut," All Might's booming voice reached Izuku, "so I excused myself from the Principal's presence and came right away, then I ran into young Iida, and he told about what was happening here,"

_'Just hearing about it, made my blood boil! The kids must be scared, my poor colleagues did their best, but are still hurt!'_ he thought as he ripped his tie off.

"I've been waiting for you, hero," Shigaraki spat.

Izuku, who was still in the Nomu's grip, heard the scared mumbling that came from the plaza.

The hero then jumped from where he was in an inhuman speed. The only thing that they were able to see was a yellow blur and the villains being knocked out on its way.

All Might stopped next to Aizawa, lifting him in his arms, then he was a blur again and Tsuyu and Mineta were by Aizawa's side.

"The two of you take Aizawa to the entrance and stay there," All Might said in front.

"I'm sorry, father," the handyman said, as he kneeled down and took the hand that had fallen from his face when All Might went past to grab her friends, "Throwing punches to save people," he laughed, "that's what our world says is heroism, just state-sponsored violence, you're fast, but not as fast as I expected, could it really be true? That you're getting weaker?"

That was when Izuku saw his scary face. It sent shivers down her spine as his blood-red eyes were fixed on them.

But she was able to utter from her place in between the villains, "All Might please don't! One- of my punches didn't even affect the brain guy!"

"Midoriya," The man said finally looking at her, his smile back to his face, "FEAR NOT! I'LL SAVE YOU!" Then he jumped off towards the villains, arms crossed as he yelled, "CAROLINA SMASH!"

But the guy didn't flinch, just sent her towards Shigaraki who grabbed her by her hair, only one finger not touching her.

The Nomu went to grasp the hero, as he dodged.

"Not even a grunt?" All Might punched him.

"No, 'cause he's got 'Shock Absorption', the only way to damage and kill him is ripping him apart limb from limb, not that he would let you," Shigaraki explained laughing by the sidelines, pushing her to her knees, but pulling at her hair so she would watch their fight.

"Okay then..." the number one hero grabbed the Nomu by his back then lifted him over his shoulders, platting his head on the ground.

_'I'm helpless, a hostage, while he's there putting his life on the line for us when they might have something to kill him, I have to get out of here, I'm on the way!__I'm the only one who knows!"_

She could hear faint cheering from her classmates as they called for him to kill the Nomu and save her. She started panicking as everyone continued cluelessly cheering for the hero.

The mist guy, Kurogiri, had appeared under the fighting duo, saving the Nomu from being put underground.

The Nomu nailed his claws on All Might's side.

His injured side.

"Did you hope to stop his movements by driving him through the ground? It wouldn't have worked, he's as powerful as you,"

All Might let go of the Nomu as he clenched his side.

The bird villain dragged him through the mist.

"I can not say that I enjoy the idea of having blood and guts in my gate, but if they are yours, I'll happily oblige!" he laughed, "you see, Nomu's job was to hold you down, and mine is to cut you in half while inside the gate," he explained.

"But why not make you watch as I kill your student, um?" Shigaraki called out, at those words his blue eyes stared at Izuku. His normally shining orbs were drowning in fear as the villain's left hand went to the girl's throat.

"ALL MIGHT!"

But he couldn't do anything, only watch as his fingers touched her neck one after the other.

However, before his picky came in contact with her skin, she heard a very familiar explosion.

"What the fuck are you doing to Deku?!" Katsuki!

He exploded the warp gate guy to the ground.

Just after him, Todoroki's ice crackled, encasing the Nomu, and Kirishima went to hit Shigaraki on the back, but the hand on her neck swung at him making him back off.

"I've heard that, supposedly, you people are here to kill All Might," Todoroki said in his monotone voice, sparing a glance at Izuku, "But let's be honest, scum like you guys could never achieve that goal,"

The said hero got out of the now frozen grip of the villain, standing in front of his students.

Izuku assumed Shigaraki was glaring at Katsuki as he said, "you've pinned down our way out... that's a problem,"

"You dumbass! The parts you can turn into that funcking fog are limited, aren't they? And you use what you can to hide the rest!" Katsuki said as if he was a genius.

Although Izuku did think he was by discovering it.

"But you still haven't answered my damn question," the blond spat, "What the hell are you fucking doing to Deku?"

"We should be ashamed, losing to kids... and leaving them at full health!" he still ignored him, he looked at the Nomu, "Nomu! Take out the explosive imp, and bring back our escape route, if I can't kill him I will take his student, maybe even turn her into one of us,"

Then to their surprise, the Nomu got out of the warp gate, the parts of his body encased in ice falling apart.

"How is he still moving?!" Izuku was dumbstruck, trying hard to dislocated his hand from her hair, without touching the pinky.

"You said his quirk was Shock Absorption!" All Might cried out.

"I never said he only had that! He also has hyper-regeneration!" Shigaraki told them as the muscles on the Nomu's right side started to grow back, "He's a sandbag designed to withstand all of your punches!"

The Nomu ran so fast that they couldn't even see him.

But she knew where he was going.

"Kacchan!" she yelled as a strong wind blew past her.

"I'm here you nerd!" she looked back at where the boys were, and there he was.

"How did you dodge that?!" She called out, scanning his body from afar, looking for injuries.

"I didn't damn it!" He crossed his arms on his chest, his cheeks were slightly pink.

"So… what happened..." she trailed off as she saw All Might hit the wall.

"It was a kid!" he yelled as the dust fell back.

"Anything to save someone, right? Just like this girl earlier," Shigaraki pulled her hair again, trailing his finger on her chin, "She came at me with everything she had! But of course! Violence in the name of helping others is the hero way, right? Now her strength will be used to kill some heroes for me, maybe even you All Might,"

What was he talking about?

"But you know what? THAT PISSES ME OFF THAT JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE CALLED HERO YOU ARE THE RIGHT ONE! Both of us thrive in violence, but you are good, and I'm evil. Symbol of Peace? You are just another tool for violence, made to keep us down! But I'll show the world that by killing you,"

"You are just crazy. Idealistic criminals aren't different from street thugs, you just want chaos, NOW GIVE ME BACK MY STUDENT!" All Might spat.

The three boys looked at each other, thinking the same thing, Izuku could see their plan form on their eyes.

"Three on four," Todoroki pointed.

"With All Might's help, we can take them down," Kirishima said.

"So what're ya idiots waiting for? Let's get stupid Deku outta here," Katsuki growled.

They prepared to fight, but All Might stopped them.

"You would still be trapped if it wasn't for me," Todoroki pointed out.

"You are right Todoroki, so thank you! But just watch a pro at work!"

Shigaraki sent the Nomu and Mist Guy to fight All Might as he pulled Izuku to her feet and held her by her waist, "Don't you dare make a move, or I'll send Nomu to kill your little friends, or I could take you away and twist you so you will kill them yourself," he whispered in her ear, his smirk clear in his voice.

Her breath caught in her lungs and she didn't even dare to pull her wings back against her back, his hold on her body hurting her.

As they watched, All Might went all out on the Nomu, sending shock waves all around them.

"You know he has Shock Absorption!"

"Yeah, but he doesn't have a 'Shock Nullification', so that means he has a limit! You said he was built to withstand everything I got? So I just have to go BEYOND!"

_'Every one of those punches is over 100%!' _Izuku realized.

"A HERO'S ALWAYS READY TO SMASH THROUGH TROUBLE TO HELP PEOPLE THRIVE AND BE HAPPY! SO TELL ME, VILLAIN, DO YOU KNOW WHAT'S THE MEANING OF **PLUS ULTRA**?!" and as he said that, the Nomu went flying through the ceiling.

The students stared at him in shock as vapour came out of his body.

"In my heyday, 5 punches would've been enough, but that took over 300 mighty blows!" he chuckled.

"YOU CHEATED!" Shigaraki yelled at the hero, his arm around Izuku's throat, nearly choking her, his other hand started to scratch at his neck, a sickening sound that made her want to vomit.

The villain started mumbling about how it wasn't possible, and how somebody lied to him.

In the corner of her eye, she saw as the boys turned around to leave, she released a mental breath as they were heading for safety.

But to her horror Katsuki stayed there, staring at her.

She saw Kirishima trying to drag him away, and she was glad as he slowly backed away. She had to find an opening to strike, and for that, the three of them had to be far away.

"Aren't you going to fight me? What happened to you killing me?" All Might taunted, bringing Tomura and Izuku's attention back to him, "If you can take me, then bring it on!"

But she saw right through her mentor's lies, he was bluffing! The vapour around him showed that! He was just gaining time! Maybe to get the villain to let go of her or for the other heroes to get here. And she was the only one who knew in how much trouble he was in!

"SO?" He taunted again trying to keep them scared.

"If only he hadn't beaten our Nomu to oblivion! We could still win!"

"Stay calm Tomura Shigaraki, it's obvious that the Nomu did manage to leave some damage," Kurogiri said, "the boys are holding back, and reinforcement should be here at any moment, but we have this girl, he would never attack if she was on the line,"

"Yes, yes, yes, he is the last level that stands before our victory..." Shigaraki looked up at the hero, his hold on her relaxing a bit.

This was her chance! She had to do something while they were distracted!

She turned One for All in her right arm and with one quick motion, she elbowed the villain that had his hold on her in the ribs. It startled him so he was sent fly away.

Her elbow was now broken and healing, but it was worth it, she was free!

The villain picked himself up with the mist guys help, and glared at her, running towards her again to make her decay under his touch.

She lit her quirk in her broken elbow and lit One for All on the other arm to strike at him.

**BANG!**

The bullet hit Shigaraki on the arm.

"They have arrived!" everyone looked at where the bullet came from.

"Forgive us, everyone, we're a bit late, but we brought everyone we could," a high-pitched voice called out from the entrance.

"Representative of class 1-A, Tenya Iida! Reporting for duty!" Iida yelled as the teachers flooded the entrance.


	8. Chapter 8: Small Talk

Snipe kept on shooting left and right, taking down villains they couldn't even see, but they did hear cries and groans echo from wherever they hit their target.

"Looks like they are here, guess we've gotta try another time, Kurogiri," Shigaraki said, getting up from the floor and covering the bullet wound the hero just gave him and his ribs, he glared at Izuku, hating rolling from him in waves.

Izuku, whose elbow was still broken from hitting him, walked away, reaching for where All Might was for some kind of protection.

But before he could leave, the hero kept shooting his way, hitting his arms and legs. The villain fell into the mist, taking him away slowly.

However, Thirteen, who had her back torn open, used her quirk, that started pulling the villains even if she was far away.

"I may have failed, but the next time we meet, you'll die All Might, Symbol of Peace," Shigaraki barked, then his eyes fell on her again, "and I will take him down too," and they both disappeared.

What the pros have to face... what they are up against... the children were confronted with that far too soon...

"I couldn't do anything... I was just a damn damsel in distress," Izuku muttered. She was shaking from the fear of his blood-red eyes' look.

Her whole body hurt from his previous hold, her elbow healing slowly, and her wings were opened not being able to move.

"That's not true," All Might called out to her, half his body had already shrunken, "if you hadn't hit him, he would have thrown you inside the warp gate and would have taken you away, might even have come back to kill me! You saved yourself!" his smile got bigger, "and me!"

Her eyes full of tears she smiled up at him, relieved they were both okay.

"Deku!" Katsuki called, bringing her back to the present.

Because of All Might's battle with the Nomu and his detransformation, there was a thick wall of smoke in between the One for All users and the rest of their group.

"Kacchan?!" she called in surprise.

"Where are you, you fucking nerd?"

Izuku and All Might shared a look of concern. If the ash-blonde came too close, he would discover All Might's secret!

Izuku got up, her hurting body forgotten, she looked at the hero one last time, seeing that Cementoss was coming to take care of him, she walked past the vapour that kept them hidden.

She found Katsuki running towards her the moment he was able to make out her body. His eyes were shining with anger.

"How the heck did you end up on the villain's shitty hands? Did you think you could take him down on your own? Are you suicidal?" he came up to her, just inches away.

"I didn't want to! But he was going to kill Tsuyu-chan and Mineta-kun!" she cried out.

He scowled at her, then looked her over, as if he was looking for injuries. She had already healed herself so she was sure he wouldn't find any blood or twitching muscles, even if she was still sore all over.

He then took her hand and pulled her towards the others.

As they went up the stairs, she bit her lip, keeping the groans of fatigue quiet. Katsuki was going to kill her if he heard any complaints.

"Are you okay Deku-chan?" Uraraka ran towards them when they reached the top, Iida and Tsuyu trailing behind her.

"Yeah, I'm fine,"

"I'm sorry for-" Tsuyu tried to apologize but Izuku cut her off.

"There's no need for that," Izuku looked back at where it had happened then back at her friends with a sincere smile, "You were in danger and I would never forgive myself if you or Mineta-kun had gotten hurt trying to save me,"

Tsuyu smiled, relieved. But then she quirked her eyebrows with Ochaco, both girls looking at Izuku and Katsuki's hands that were still intertwined, then shared a look.

"Well, the police just arrived we should go and help in any way we can," Iida said, bringing the suspicious girls back to earth.

Katsuki dragged her out, meeting the rest of the class and the police outside.

"Looks like you are all unharmed," Detective Tsukauchi said as he counted them, "You'll now all head back to class, we'll take your statements later,"

"Detective? What about Aizawa Sensei?" someone asked, but the nervousness rolled from them all in waves

Izuku squeezed Katsuki's hand, ignoring his 'tch' and joined Tsuyu and Mineta for the answer, dragging him along.

The detective named everything that their Sensei was suffering from, making the three students that had been there at the moment, gag.

"And Thirteen?" Mina asked.

He did the same for the rescuing hero, bringing tears to Uraraka and Mina's eyes.

"Sansa, take them to their classroom would you?"

The cat-headed officer nodded and guided the children away.

* * *

Izuku woke up the next day still feeling sore.

She discovered that the more she used her healing, sorer she would get the next day.

She got up and was going to put her uniform on when she remembered classes had been cancelled because of the attack.

So she sat back on her bed, remembering the dream she had before waking up.

She had been in a dark room, scratching was heard but she couldn't pinpoint where it came from. The sound became drowning until hands, dead pale hands, came from the darkness towards her. They reached out for her, grabbed her ankles and wrists and in a second she found herself on the floor as one last pair of hands grabbed at her hair and pulled. His voice echoed in the dark, "Don't you dare make a move, or I'll send Nomu to kill your little friends, or I could take you away and twist you so you will kill them yourself,"

Images of her mother, All Might, Katsuki, her friends, all of them on the ground, their blood flowing until it reached her bare feet, made her shake her head to free her mind from that sickening nightmare.

She would not let him kill them.

She wouldn't let him take her away either.

With a determined look, she got up again and took a bath, she put on some shorts and a sports bra, to limit the number of fabrics to get on her way as she sat in front of the TV and combed her feathers clean.

Another thing she had discovered about her quirks was that after two days without cleaning, her wings would get filthy and the dead feathers would stick to her body and diminish her performance.

The news was talking about the accident, saying that the villains that attacked were just low-level thugs that had a mastermind behind it, and just the thought of Shigaraki made her change channels.

When she finished with her right-wing and was starting with her left, someone knocked at the door.

She got up, still brushing the wing.

She was shocked to see Katsuki on the other side of the door.

"Kacchan?!"

"Hey, nerd," he looked angry as if he had been forced to come here.

She was going to ask what he was doing there when her mother showed up behind her.

"Katsuki-kun?! What a surprise! Come in, come in," Inko shoved Izuku out of the way and grabbed the boy's arm, dragging him inside.

She went straight to the kitchen, Izuku following them, trying to keep the laugh, as she saw the complete and utter confusion on Katsuki's face.

Inko made him sit on a chair by the kitchen, his eyes were wide as he looked at Izuku for some kind of explanation for her mother's attitude.

She scoffed at him, it has been a long time since she had seen him so out of it.

She sat on the chair beside him, finishing to brush her wing, knowing very well that her mother was going to ask whatever question she had in mind.

"So Katsuki-kun, what brings you here?" Inko asked making both teens look her way as she went left and right, things floating, as she made something.

"I wanted to talk to D-Izuku about what happened yesterday," he said looking away, his angry tone somewhat subdued.

"Oh yeah, I understand, Izuku told me some of it," the woman said as she caught something in the air, "if Izuku didn't have a healing quirk she surely would have gotten out of there with some broken bones, knowing how quick to jump into danger she is," the woman stopped, shaking her head, "if you kids want you can go to Izuku's room and talk. I'll call you when lunch is ready,"

Katsuki tried to decline, saying he would eat at 'the old hag's house' but Inko gave him one look and with the words that she would call his mother the ash-blond went quiet, following Izuku towards her bedroom.

Izuku opened the door setting her brush on her table.

Katsuki followed her in, sitting on her bed and looking down at the floor.

"Put something on, you moron," he told her.

She looked down at herself and quickly did as she was asked, and he looked up as she did.

"Your room hasn't changed a thing," he pointed out.

She looked around, seeing all her All Might stuff. Even after meeting the guy and becoming his successor she couldn't just get herself to take them down.

"Yeah..."

"You haven't actually told her what happened, did ya?"

"No... she would be too worried, don't want to make her lose her mind over something that is already over," she said ignoring the flashback to her nightmare.

Then they stayed in silence, she was leaning on the wall just watching him, as he looked down to her floor again.

"So...?" she asked after the silence became unbearable.

"Don't you ever do that again," he said in a quiet tone.

"Do what? What are you-?"

"Don't you ever put yourself in a dangerous situation like that and then disappear," he cut her off, his voice was quiet, throwing her off, "I know you want to be a hero and all that crap, but you can't just go there and throw your life away just to save some extras that could easily take care of themselves,"

He looked up at her, and they saw all the emotions swirling on the other's eyes.

"I'm sorry for worrying you Kacchan, but I won't stop," she stared at him, her eyes burning with resolve, "You may not believe that I can do it, but I will prove you wrong!"

He wanted to yell at her that it wasn't what he thought, that he just was FUCKING WORRIED ABOUT HER AND THAT HE LO-, he growled internally, _'where did that thought come from?'_ he thought as he buried it deep in his mind. But he knew that, whatever he yelled at her, it wouldn't change anything. It would just get her mad at him, so they stared into each other's eyes, none of them wanting to give up

_'This girl is going to be the death of me,'_

He cursed under his breath.

"Okay nerd," he said, he got up and walked towards her, looming over her, one hand on the wall beside her head he said, "just... next time... warn me, so I don't lose my shit,"

She stared at him in surprise, he never got so close to her without yelling.

She blushed red, looking away. That was when she had an idea.

She had to tell him about One for All.

Izuku looked back up at him, smiling brightly for finally being able to tell him.

"I-" she started even though he hadn't moved away and oblivious to his now flushed cheeks.

"Izuku! Katsuki! Lunch is ready!" her mother called out, saving them from the proximity and postponing whatever they each had to say.

Izuku sighed at the lost opportunity and walked away from Katsuki, lost in her thoughts and not looking back up at him.

_'Damn it!'_ he cursed.

They both walked back to the kitchen, sitting around the table.

Inko kept the conversation going, asking how it was going at UA and what they thought of it as they ate. Both teens entered a consensus, they wouldn't tell the older Midoriya the details about any fight, or just skip them altogether.

When they finished up Inko asked them to help, so Izuku washed the dishes as Katsuki dried them, grumbling about something under his breath, she just heard the words 'green' and 'kill' which entered the angry boy's normal vocabulary. However, they actually made a great team when he wasn't yelling at her.

When the task was done with, they walked out of the house in silence.

She stopped in front of the door looking at his back.

"Well, I will just fucking go then," he said as he walked towards the nearest set of stairs.

She didn't know what got into her as she ran to him grabbing his hand, "Kacchan!"

He looked at her, confused.

She should tell him about One for All now, stop keeping secrets from her friend, but looking at his eyes that were angry again she knew she would destroy the wobbly relationship they had now, so she hugged him around the shoulders.

Hugged him!

He hugged her back but was definitely going to explode.

"Thanks for worrying about me!" she said putting some distance between them and standing back on her feet, sending him a blinding smile.

"Whatever Deku," he said looking away, but still holding her by the waist.

"Well, you should be getting home, Mitsuki-san will absolutely kill you if you stay out too long,"

"Tch," was the only thing he said as he let go of her, balled his hands into fists on his pockets, and then he stomped away, making her giggle at the sight of him.

"Sweet old Kacchan," she said as she walked back into her house.


	9. Chapter 9: Sports Festival

Author: Hey everyone! Sorry for taking so long to publish this one, but I'm trying to make the chapters longer and I'm moving so not that much free time, but I'm not leaving this fanfic and I have some other ideas for more fanfics.

Thanks for sticking around and all your patience!

PS: keep reviewing and correcting me with the orthography, I appreciate it!

* * *

"Hey, everyone! Homeroom is about to start! To your seats!" Iida started yelling early in the morning.

"You're the only one up Exit Sign!" Sero said, earning him some giggles.

They were back to school! And Izuku was so glad that her friends yelling at such an ungodly hour didn't disturb her much.

Then the door slid open, showing a bandaged head to toe Aizawa.

"'Morning,"

"Aizawa Sensei!" everyone exclaimed.

"Are you okay Sensei?" Tsuyu asked.

"My welfare isn't important right now, because your fight is far from over,"

The look he gave them through the mummy stage froze them in their seats until the class broke to murmurs, _'Our fight?', 'Don't tell me...', 'More villains?!'_ and similar things were heard all over the class.

"No," the teacher shut them up, "UA's sports festival is fast approaching,"

They all sighed relief, then worry took over.

"But we just had that villain attack!" Kaminari exclaimed.

"This will demonstrate that UA's crisis management protocols are sound... that's what we are going for, compared to previous years there will be five times the number of police officers, not to mention the uncountable number of heroes. Anyhow the sports festival is the greatest opportunity for you to shine, and it definitely won't be stopped for the likes of villains,"

"Yeah but… can we stop it if they show up?" Mineta asked behind Izuku.

"Haven't you seen the sports festival, Mineta?" she asked, turning around her modified rolling chair to look at the boy.

"Of course I have! It's just that I-"

"Our Sports Festival is one of Japan's biggest events! Surpassing even the Olympics which was the World's Sports Festival,"

"The nation's top heroes will be watching, right? So they can scout new heroes," Yaoyorozu questioned.

"They'll be looking to hire as Sidekicks! But the problem is that some of those Sidekicks stay that way forever," Kaminari lamented.

"That'll be you, you dunce," Jiro commented.

"But from it, you'll gain experience and popularity depending on who you pick, however, time is limited, you will only have three chances to show the pros what you got and make a name for yourselves, so if you want to become a great hero, you can't miss this opportunity!"

Then the bell rang for lunch.

"This got me pumped!" Kirishima beamed, "this is gonna be another step to the hero world!"

And the class kept on cheering.

"They are all so excited about it..." Izuku pointed out as she got closer to Iida.

"Aren't you? This is our chance to join our names to the pro-heroes'! Of course, we are all in high spirits," he said, tense.

She shared a look with Tsuyu and Ashido as they passed by. The guy had a weird way of showing his emotions.

"No, but I'm-" she started fiddling with her feathers.

"Deku-chan, Iida-kun," they both looked to where the pink-cheeked girl called them from.

"Let's do our best!" she said, but her face was turned into a frown, creepy!

"What happened to your face Uraraka!?" Iida cried out, suddenly he seemed normal to Izuku's eyes.

"That expression isn't very Uraraka-like," Ashido commented from behind them.

"Everyone!" Uraraka called again, "I'm gonna crush this!"

And everyone cheered again, this time, however, a bit scared.

Then Izuku, Iida and Uraraka went to the cafeteria.

They were talking about why they wanted to become heroes when All Might appeared out of the corner as if he was on fire.

"Midoriya! You are here! Would you eat lunch with me?" he asked pointing at himself.

Uraraka laughed as the green-haired girl nodded, a frown on her pale skin.

They walked to the break room and sat down for tea. Izuku stared at the now skeletal form of her predecessor, waiting for whatever he had called her here for.

"Izuku my dear... I can only use my hero form for fifty minutes..." he whispered, barely loud enough for her to hear.

"What?!" she jumped from her chair.

"My time limit is getting shorter, I can barely keep it for an hour," he pushed a cup towards her.

"I'm-"

"Don't apologize! We're very much alike, you and I," he said spitting blood from what she supposed was a laugh, "But I called here to talk about the Sports Festival, you still can't control One for All and your healing leaves you tired, so what do we do?"

"Umm... During the attack on USJ, when I punched the Nomu guy... there was no kickback,"

"What was different?"

She thought back to that moment, and at what Thirteen had said.

"It was the first time I used it against someone,"

"Well, it sounds like you manage to pump the brakes without even knowing it, it may not look like it, but that's progress and in good time, 'cause my time as the Symbol of Peace is counted,"

"Yeah..." she looked away.

"And others have started to notice too," she looked back at him, there was something important coming, "I granted you my power so you could succeed me. The whole country will be watching the Sports Festival, and that means that you will have to show them yourself, the next All Might, the fledgeling Symbol, I want you to scream it to the world 'I AM HERE!'"

"But how-?"

"You know how it works right?"

"Of course! All the students from all the courses are separated by year, and we compete in a series of preliminary competitions... The winners continue on to the main event,"

"Exactly, and that's how you'll gain the attention!" he pointed.

"Huh?"

"She says 'HUH?'!" he spat more blood again, toppling over the sofa he was sitting on.

"No, I understand, but I'm just not motivated as I should be, I already have you as my mentor, so it didn't occur to me to make a show of myself… you know I'm not good at it," she muttered.

"What nonsense are you saying now?" he asked, still on the floor.

"Nonsense?"

"Yes, Nonsense Princess, but there's a difference between those who aim for the top and those who don't, I understand where you are coming from, but don't forget that drive you felt while you cleaned that beach,"

The bell rang the end of lunch, Izuku excused herself and went back to class, his words stuck into her mind.

* * *

At the end of class, Izuku was the one who opened the door to leave, so she was the one who came across it first.

A bunch of students were at the door.

"What's going on?" Uraraka came behind her.

"What are they doing?" Mineta asked, standing on top of Aoyama's desk, who was closest to the door.

"Scoping the competition," Katsuki said as he came up right behind Izuku, "We are the kids who survived the attack, makes sense, but there's no point, move aside, you extras!"

"Don't go calling people extras!" Iida reprimanded him.

Izuku swirled around to look at him, maybe even reprimand him too, but before she could, a cold voice came from the swarm of students outside.

"It's true, we wanted a look at the _famous_ kids of class 1-A, the ones who survived the villain attack," said a kid in the mass with messy purple hair when she turned back to look at who talked, "But let me say, I'm disappointed that some of us weren't able to get into the hero course so that someone like you could," he pointed his finger at Katsuki, "And depending on the results of the festival, they might transfer some of us into the hero course, and vice versa. So this moment for a general studies kid like me, this will be the perfect time to take you out of your pedestal," he said getting closer and talking directly in Katsuki's face, Izuku right in the middle of the staring boys with nowhere to go, "This is a declaration of war,"

He glanced down at her as if he saw her for the first time, quickly blinked, and walked away leaving most of them dumbstruck.

"Hey, you! I'm from 1-B, came here to see you guys who fought the villains, but I just see a bunch of arrogant bastards!" a guy with weird eyelashes said, "and you better not run the name of the hero course into the mud!"

Izuku looked up at Katsuki who was still behind her to see his unreadable face.

He grabbed her hand and shoved past the other students, keeping her right behind him.

"Hey, jerk! Why did you do that?" Kirishima called, "Now everyone hates us!"

"I don't give a damn, I'm heading for the top, so why should I?"

She stared at his back as he pulled her away through the crowd.

_'I'm such an idiot!'_ she thought as they finally got out of the crowd and away from the uncountable number of eyes.

Katsuki let go of her hand, making her look at him.

"That was for you too, I will surpass everyone so don't hold back," they shared a look then walked side by side.

During the next two weeks, they all spent training and preparing their own way. Determined to give everything they got… And win. And soon enough it was the day of the Festival. Moment to show the world what they are capable of, and rise to the top.

Class 1-A was waiting on their prep room, some sitting and trying to distract themselves, some walking around and others staring into nothing, looking for the answers of life. They were all very nervous.

Iida was yelling every 10 seconds, asking if everyone was ready.

Izuku was on a corner, trying with all her might to calm her nerves.

"Midoriya," Todoroki's monotone voice echoed, silencing the other students.

"What is it Todoroki-kun?" she asked, walking away from the corner she was with a small smile, accepting the distraction.

"I'm more capable than you, and stronger," that shocked everyone.

"I know why-?"

"All Might's got his eye on you, and I don't care why, really, but I will beat you," he looked down at her, his eyes as cold as always.

"A declaration of war?!" Kaminari scoffed.

"What was that for, man?" Kirishima got up.

"I really don't care what you all think, at least I'm not pretending to be anyone's friend," then he turned his back on them.

"Todoroki-kun," Izuku looked down as the room was as silent as a tomb, "I'm not sure what's going on in your head for you to feel the need to tell me you will beat me. You're clearly stronger than me, most of you are,"

"Of course not, Midoriya," Kirishima tried.

"But," she silenced him again, "everyone, from the hero course and the other courses, is aiming for the top, and I'm... well, lemme say this, I'm not gonna fall behind again, I'm going for the top, with everything I've got,"

Her head was now held high, no doubts and no fears in her face or stance, 100% sure of herself.

She might be the shorter of the class after Mineta, but her eyes were shining a vivid green with so much resolve that some of her classmates took a step back, never seeing such a drive in such a small girl.

"Right," Todoroki said.

They were called then, starting the festival.

"The first-year stage, the students are coming!"

They all walked out, nearly being left deaf by the people cheering.

_"I need you to tell the world... 'I AM HERE'"_

"Got it All Might," she murmured as the words of her mentor came to her and she entered the tunnel with her friends beside her.

**"It is the U.A.'s sports festival! The one time each year when our fledgeling heroes compete in a ruthless grand battle!"** yelled Present Mic, leaving their ears ringing, **"first up... the guys you have all been wanting to see! The miraculous rising stars, who brushed off a villain attack on their first week with their steely willpower! The first years of the hero course! It's Class 1-A!"**

They entered the stadium.

All of Izuku's courage left her when she saw how many people were there.

"Th-there a-are to-too ma-many!" she stuttered, reaching for Iida's sleeve, to maybe hiding behind her friend.

"And we are expecting to impress them all..." Iida said looking around and pushing her to stand right, "I suppose this is necessary if we hope to become heroes,"

**"Following Class B of the hero course! Classes C, D and E of general studies! And here comes the support course, F, G and H, and last but not least the business course I, J and K!"**

All classes entered the stadium and joined around the stage.

**"Now for the athlete's oath!"** they looked up at it where the R-Rated Hero: Midnight was standing.

"R-Rated?" Tokoyami asked behind her, "Should she really be on a high-school?"

**"Pipe down! Your student representative is... from Class 1-A, Midoriya Izuku!"**

Izuku's eyes went wide.

"Midoriya?" her class asked.

"She did get first place on the entrance exam," Uraraka said, pushing her friend forward.

She got up on the stage and took the microphone to steady herself.

She took a breath and recited the oath they had all learned:

**"I-In the name of all competitors,"** she stuttered, she took a breath and remembered All Might's words, so she looked up again with the same look she had given Todoroki moments ago, "**I promise that we shall take part in these Games. Respecting and abiding by the rules and in the spirit of fair play. Committing ourselves to a competition without dishonesty. In the true spirit of sportsmanship. For the glory of sport and the honour of our courses and in respect for the Fundamental Principles of Heroism... And I promise that we will all give our best and aim for our goals as pro heroes."**

The crowd applauded and cheered as she got out of the stage and joined the others, her legs wobbly.

"I'm going to win, and you will all be my stepping-stones," Katsuki said loud enough so all their group could hear as if he hadn't even listened to her.

She turned around, but he wasn't looking at her.

"Don't get cocky class A!"

"Don't push your luck!"

"Sludge-Fucker!"

"Over-confident bastard,"

Izuku shook her head, her words were already forgotten by the first years' rage for Katsuki.

_'Confident? No... the old Kacchan, he would have smiled as he said that. He is telling himself he can't lose,'_

**"Now without any delay, let's start the first event!" **Midnight pointed at the screen behind her**, "These are the qualifiers! It's the reason many competitors go home crying! And this year it will be... Obstacle Race!"**

Midnight explained how it was going to go down as they walked towards the beginning line, getting ready to run, jump or fly.

**"Racers, to your position,"**

Izuku stayed behind so she would be able to take off.

**"Start!"**

_'Watch me All Might,'_ she thought as she took off over the other's heads.

On her position, she could see that on the ground, Todoroki was freezing everything.

When she got out of the tunnel the point of her wings had frost, but many students were frozen, and Todoroki was already far ahead.

But not everyone fell for his trick.

Right behind a flying Izuku came Katsuki, Kirishima, Yaoyorozu and Aoyama. Her class was keeping up. She smiled proudly as she flew faster, catching up with Todoroki.

**BOOM**

They all looked right and saw Mineta flying after being punched by... a Faux Villain!

Right in front of them, many came blocking the passage.

Izuku finally caught up with Todoroki. She stayed in the air right beside him in shock, her beating wings making his hair fall in his face.

"It's the Zero-Pointers from the exam!"

"The hero course kids fought those?"

"Too many!"

Todoroki put his hand on the ground, and as he raised his hand to freeze them, Izuku flapped her wings harder to go over them, cutting some of them with the tip of one of her wings.

The robots were completely frozen when she was at the top, and the cause of it was already on the other side.

She sliced the robot under her, and dove to catch up again.

**BOOM**

The robot fell leaving the others behind.

**"1-A's Todoroki for y'all! Busting through and sabotaging the others in one move! He is cold! And right behind him the flying number one of the entrance exam and his classmate! Midoriya! She ain't gonna let you get too far ahead!"**

The green-haired girl kept speeding through the air as she heard the way too common explosions coming from behind her.

**"And in third place is Bakugo! also from class 1-A! The current leaders of the pack are all from 1-A!"**

**"Class B and the other classes aren't bad, but class A knows there's no time to hesitate, they've been exposed to the world, up close and personal, they've had that fear planted on them, and they've endured it, overcome it. Each has grown from the experience and forgotten how to hesitate,"** Aizawa said in a low voice.

Izuku looked ahead seeing the next part of the obstacle race.

Todoroki was already half-way through it when she got close.

"Get out of my way nerd!" Katsuki came flying over her, making explosions to keep himself airborne and slightly burning her wings, all kindness he had shown her put aside at the prospect of winning.

She fell on one of the platforms and stared at the now running Todoroki and Katsuki as they got closer to the end.

'_As Present Mic said, I ain't gonna let ya get too far ahead,'_ she smiled and took off again as the rest of the competitors got close to where she was.

She soared a bit when she passed the last fall, her wings were sore from too much use and the blow from Katsuki.

She landed right in front of the next obstacle.

The minefield.

Todoroki was carefully walking around as Katsuki exploded past him.

"Hah! Can't slow me down! Your declaration of war! Was to the wrong person!" Izuku heard him yell.

**"We have a new leader! but the rest are catching up!"**

Izuku saw as Todoroki grabbed Katsuki's arm as they started to fight and run at the same time.

**"But with these two grabbing for first place... will they be able to maintain it?"**

When she heard that she realised they were getting nearer and nearer to the end and she was still far behind and others were passing her.

She went flying, but someone activated a succession of mines under her, some of them propelled her forward and upward.

**"Look at that ****everyone!**** class 1-A Midoriya is catching up! If the boys don't stop bickering she will lead the race!"**

_'And that's my intention,' _as she made the craziest move yet, the exact moment she was over their heads and when her emerald eyes came in contact with the ruby ones of Katsuki and the teal and grey ones Shoto she used One for All on her wings for a fraction of a second.

The pressure of the release of One for All sent her like a missile, throwing everyone in a 10-meter radius back.

**"She passed them with the use of her quirk!"**

She got out of the minefield, the end of the race right in front of her.

And she fell, her wings broken but already healing. She rolled over and took off running not looking back. She could hear explosions and ice right behind her, but she was going to win.

"DEKU! GET THE HELL BACK HERE!" Katsuki yelled.

Both boys stopped their fighting and now were hot on her trail.

Katsuki made an explosion right behind her, but she knew Katsuki so she used it for her favour, she angled her body just right so that his explosion hit her wings flat and sent her forward, taking her feet from the ground the exact moment Shoto sent an ice attack.

_'I'm not gonna let you, Katsuki! Nor you Todoroki!'_

Somehow she hit the ground on her feet, way in front of them and kept running like crazy, both boys running to catch up, their curses weren't heard anymore.

**"And Midoriya blows off the competition! What are you teaching those kids Eraserhead?" **They heard a grunt that they assumed came from the mummy-like teacher, **"The one who made it back to the stadium first is... none other than our angel Izuku Midoriya!"** Present Mic yells as she comes into the light.

She looked around smiling brightly while she heard the last cracks of her healing wing bones, just the skin and slightly burnt feathers.

She locked eyes with Todoroki. Behind him, Katsuki was clenching his arm.

"Kacchan?" she ran to him and saw his arms tense.

_'He used too much power,'_

"Are you-?"

"Shut up!" he yelled and walked away.

"Deku-chan, that was awesome!" Uraraka called.

"To lose a race with a speed quirk... I'm a shame to my family," Iida said, his head hanging.

"Ocha-chan, Tenya-kun,"

"I'm jealous of your first place!" Ochaco commented.

_'I was just lucky,'_

**"The top 42 from this qualifying round will move on!"** Midnight called their attention when they were all back, **"Now the selection begins, the second event is the Cavalry Battle,"**

She explained how it worked, Izuku already thinking of a group.

**"Each one of you has been assigned a number based on your ranking,"**

"So the number of points depends on the members," Tokoyami thought out loud.

**"Hey! But yes, the 42nd is worth 5 points, the 41st is worth 10 points and so on, but guess what? Our cute first place is worth TEN. MILLION. POINTS!"** she yelled, making everyone look at Izuku again.

Midnight continued to explain, but the green-haired girl wasn't paying much attention anymore.

**"You've got 15 minutes to make your teams!"** and they started.

_'I don't have to worry about the points of my team members,'_ she started thinking, knowing very well that just because of that no one was going to want to be with her.

"Hey, Deku-chan team up with me!" Uraraka called.

She looked at the taller girl, "Yes! Come," she grabbed her hand, "I know who we need to win if they want right," she walked away dragging Uraraka along.

"Tenya-kun! join our group!" the girls said together.

"We-"

"I'm sorry Izuku," he stopped her, for the first time calling her by her given name, "but ever since the entrance exam I've been right behind you, and after losing to you again just now, in a race nonetheless, is time for me to challenge you, my friend, good luck," and he walked away towards Todoroki, they shared a look before she walked away.

_'It has already begun! We are all enemies, so no time for loyalty between friends,'_

Izuku looked around, seeing that Tenya had joined Shoto, Momo and Denki. While Katsuki had Mina, Hanta and Eijiro

"What will we do now?"

Izuku was going to answer when a voice called for her.

"Hey, team up with me misses First Place," a pink-haired girl said, "I'm Mei Hatsume, from the support course! I want to be in the spotlight you will bring!" she blabbered on showing them her 'babies'.

"Okay," Izuku said after Hatsume showed her one invention that might be useful to them considering who they will be up against, "Just one more,"

She looked around and found who she needed.

She had never really talked to him, but she did remember how his shadow familiar was powerful, he would be perfect, "Will you join me?" she asked him.

He looked at her as she explained her plan.

"I trust you," Fumikage Tokoyami said.

So she explained her plan to her teammates, Hatsume was ecstatic with the opportunity to shine some light to her baby.

**"Time to get started!"** Midnight announced, whipping her weapon around.

**"Let's get a battle cry! Here comes the second event! It's time for the count down! Three!"**

Izuku put her hair up into a ponytail and tighten the band with 10 000 325 around her head.

"**Two!"**

Her eyes locked with the cold and mismatched ones of Shoto to her right.

"**One!"**

Then with the burning red ones of Katsuki to her left.

"**Start!"**

And as it started every team ran towards them.

"Incoming attack Midoriya!" Tokoyami informed.

"Run!" she said but they stayed stuck in place.

"We're sinking!" Uraraka said.

Her whole group locked eyes with a class B group, with the loud guy with weird eyelashes as the rider.

Izuku's eyes flickered for one instant before she yelled, "Everyone hold on!"

She opened her now somewhat recovered wings wide and took off, the only thing weighing was Uraraka, thanks to her quirk.

While in the air Dark Shadow, Tokoyami's quirk, kept the long-range attackers at bay.

"That was awesome Tokoyami-kun! That was the defence we were lacking!" Izuku complimented when he reflected an attack from Jirou's earphone jacks.

"You're the one who chose me," he somewhat smiled at her.

She smiled at the boy then shared a look with Uraraka as they landed farther away.

"What do you think of my 'landers'?" Hatsume asked with a big grin on her face.

"I love them! I didn't feel anything when we landed, I'll have to ask for that on my own costume!"

"Wait until you see the-"

**"It hasn't been more than two minutes, but the battlefield is already chaotic! And not just for the ten million, but for the other high ranked too!"** Present Mic interrupted.

They were surrounded again, to their right was weird eyelashes, to their left was Shoji, hiding something under his dupli-arms.

"We must keep our distance! Fighting multiple enemies is a bad idea!" Tokoyami advised.

"Let's take off!" Izuku, her wings still opened, she flapped them to do as she had said.

"I'm stuck!" They all looked at the boot Ochaco was wearing and the familiar ball under it.

"It's Mineta! But where-?" Izuku looked around then saw him under Shoji's arms.

Then a tongue shot out of the tank-like group, Izuku dodging it barely, her left-wing coming up to shield her headband.

"Tsuyu-chan!?" Izuku and Ochaco asked in unison.

"Hey there Izuchan, Ochachan!"

Izuku then took them off the ground, her wings beating as hard as they ever have until she ripped the boot off the ground.

"My baby!" Hatsume cried.

"I'm sorry, but we managed to get away!" Izuku tried to console the girl.

**BOOM**

"Getting comfortable Deku?"

Katsuki was above them, rage on his ruby eyes as he dove at them.

"Tokoyami-kun!"

Dark Shadow protected them as Izuku manoeuvred away. Katsuki dropped to the ground, Sero catching him in mid-air. Izuku and her group landed with difficulty now.

**"There has been already seven minutes so let's take a look at the scores shall we?"**

The scores appeared on the screen, and everyone in the stands was shocked.

**"Besides for Midoriya and Todoroki, class A ain't looking good! What happened to Bakugo?"**

Izuku looked at her childhood friend across the field and she saw as the other guy stripped him of his points, and she knew by the look of it, it wasn't going to end well for him.

"Guys... I don't think it will be hard to-" Izuku said, but Todoroki's group appeared in front of them.

She had talked too soon.

**"Looks like it's closing to an end folks! Class 1-B is on the rise, but who will end with the ten million points? Apparently, Todoroki is set on taking them now!"**

"We are here for them Midoriya," the heterochromatic-haired boy said at the same time.

"It seems we will have to fight, Midoriya, they are determined," Tokoyami looked up at her for instructions.

"We have to keep moving! It's nearly over," Izuku's green eyes searched around for something that she could use to get them away from this situation.

"Now!" Todoroki yelled to his team as each one of them started doing something.

Yaoyorozu created a blanket, and with it, she covered herself, Iida and Todoroki.

"1.3 Million volts!" Kaminari yelled as the groups coming behind them were electrified.

Dark Shadow took the attack, saving the rest of their group from being immobilized.

Todoroki froze the rest as they continued on, taking some of their headbands on the process.

Passing them all he created an ice ring high enough to trap the two teams inside

**"The Todoroki group took the other teams with one attack and has now trapped Midoriya's team to take the ten million!"**

"We have to fly!" Uraraka desperately said.

Izuku went to open her wings when she felt pain going through it.

"Ah!" she gasped.

"What happened?" Uraraka asked concerned.

"I used it too much, and I had just healed it from a fracture," Izuku passed her fingertips over the said broken bones felt the tension instantly, but as she took in the ring Shoto created she saw it was high enough for them to take off, but not enough to fly away.

"I'll make a diversion!" Tokoyami sent Dark Shadow over the Ice and Fire user, trying to grab for his points to keep them occupied for the time it took Izuku to think of a way out of that situation.

But when the familiar attacked, Yaoyorozu counter-attacked with one of her creations.

"What a pain," Izuku huffed angrily talking about both her fragile wings and Momo's good reaction time.

"The problem is Kaminari," Tokoyami made a pointing sign with his beak.

"For the light he produces, you are right," she thought for a bit, "do they know?"

"No, Koda is the only one who knows, but he is a quiet man,"

"Then it's fine, let's just fake them out,"

Izuku stared at their opponent, trying to decide what could they be hiding from them, that was when she decided to use one of Hatsume's inventions.

"Hatsume-chan?"

"Yes, boss?"

"Turn on your last baby," Izuku glanced at the girl and saw a big smirk as she pressed a button on the pack she had made Tokoyami wear.

And for the following minutes, Izuku's team kept to their opponents left, knowing Todoroki wouldn't use that side.

The aspiring green hero didn't understand the why of that rejection of such a powerful quirk. He could have won both the contest with both his sides-

But what happened next took her away from those thoughts.

Missing just seconds for the end, Iida stopped, facing them, telling something to his teammates, and when his eyes met with Izuku's she knew he had something in mind.

He suddenly reached an unbelievable speed and before they knew Todoroki's hand was reaching for their headband.

Izuku's team didn't have time to think as the device Hatsume had strapped carefully around Tokoyami sprang to life just in time. I created to poles from each side propelling them from the ground, just out of reach of Shoto's hand.

But Tenya still had some time left to take them down from the pole, making them fall back to their feet. However they stopped some feet away so that Momo, Denki and Shoto could find their bearings again, and as soon as they saw they hadn't caught their prize, they came again at a more normal speed.

And without none of them paying attention, Todoroki's left arm fired up at the exact same moment he reached out for her headband, and Izuku's right glowed with One for All.

He went for the points, and as explosions came from the ring's opening, Izuku fanned the fire out with one move of her hand with the Quirk.

"DEKU!"

**"It's over!"**


	10. Chapter 10: Why We Want To Be Heroes

Author: Hey guys! Sorry for the wait! I just moved then started school in a different country so it took a bit to adjust.

But this fanfic is way too important for me to just leave it!

Wish you guys like it!

Like and review!

* * *

Izuku got down from her position on the cavalry horse and laid down on the ground, finally using her Angel to heal her sore wings which were open wide around her.

Tears of relief rolled down her cheeks as Uraraka cheered with Hatsume. Tokoyami stared at her with a somewhat smile. Todoroki looked lost in thought as he melted his ice ring.

Iida's engines were fuming, but he looked fine. He and the rest of his team looked shocked by the turn of events.

Katsuki had fallen on his face when Present Mic had screamed the end.

**"Wow! That was a heated cavalry battle! But let's see who are the top four teams! In the first place, the group who kept steady through all the battle, team Midoriya! In second, team Todoroki! In third, team Bakugo who rose from the ashes! And in fourth team Tetsu- wait no, it's... team Shinsou?!"**

They all looked at the purple-haired boy in surprise.

Uraraka helped Izuku up, and they went to join the others at the cafeteria. But Todoroki grabbed her arm and signalled for her to come with him.

He led her by the hand towards a corridor farther away from where her friends were and stared at her.

"You wanted to talk?" she asked, leaning on the wall opposite to him when he let her go.

He didn't answer, just stared some more as if he would find what he was looking for without having to formulate any kind of question.

"You made me break my own pledge," he stated, "the others didn't notice, none of them felt it, I was the only one who felt the pressure. I experienced All Might's true power up close and personal, remember?" he said, raising his hand.

"What are you saying...?" she asked nervously, fearing he might have discovered the only secret she _needed_ to keep.

"I felt the same pressure coming from you," he let his hand fall by his side, "Are you All Might's love child or something?"

Izuku's eyes went as round as they could go, then she broke into laughter, what was going on inside his head for him to have come to that conclusion? When she finally calmed down she saw he hadn't laughed, it wasn't a joke if his serious face was anything to go by.

"No, no," she waved her hand, "I'm not his love child,"

"So what is he then? He has a great interest in you,"

He stared at her as she looked away, she had to think of something that would satisfy his curiosity but still keep the secret of One for All.

"He's my mentor," she started, "he saved me when my quirk first manifested ten years too late and when he saw my lack of training broke my bones to an extent my own quirk couldn't heal me, he started to train me so I could actually use it,"

Their eyes were locked, Izuku wasn't lying for most of it but she was still nervous he wouldn't accept her explanation. He nodded.

"Why?" she asked when he stayed silent.

"You know my father is Endeavor, the number 2 hero, so if you are connected to the number 1 hero somehow, I have to crush you," he continued, "since he became a hero he wants to take All Might's spot at the top, so he is a roadblock for him, he could never beat him, so he came up with a solution,"

"Why are you telling me this?" she asked when he paused.

"Did you hear about Quirk Marriages?" he ignored her.

"Yes," she answered, shivering at the idea of being forced into a relationship merely to have powerful children, her mother had told her about it one time when she was researching something to put in one of her Hero Notebooks.

"Well, with his wealth and fame, my father made my mother's family agree to their marriage just so he could get his hands on her quirk," he took a breath, "making me into the perfect hero so that I could fulfil the dream he couldn't, I'm the fourth, the masterpiece, I hated being seen as a tool!" He put his hand over his scar, "My mother spent her days crying, living a life she didn't want, one day she told me that she couldn't stand the sight of my left side, as she threw boiling water on my face,"

Izuku took a step back, hitting the wall. She was horrified by what he was telling her.

"So not using my left side is my way of revenge, showing the old man that I can reach the top without his quirk, denying him," his eyes shone coldly.

_'We are both aiming for the top, but with totally different motivations,' _

He stared at her some more, then walked away.

However, she took his arm and locked eyes with him.

"I've always had people helping me through anything, I'm only here today because of them. All Might, I want to be just like him, so I have to become the strongest, it's a lame motivation compared to yours, but it doesn't mean I'm gonna lose. I still have to pay for the help I got. So let me return your declaration of war." She stared into his mismatched eyes, "I'm gonna beat you!"

He had stared at her while she spoke, still with ice-cold eyes as she then let him go. Staring at his back until he was out of sight, but she didn't hear the sound of boots getting closer.

"That was a fucking lie,"

She turned around quickly, to stare at the way to close ruby red eyes.

"K-kacchan! Where did you come from?" she jumped.

"What's the truth, Deku?" he growled in a low voice.

She looked away, red on the cheeks for the sudden proximity, but the ash-blond wasn't having it. He grabbed her by the cheeks and turned her face towards his again, just inches away from his own face.

"Pl-please, Kacchan! Let me go!" she stuttered.

"Answer me," he ignored her.

She looked around, she had the intention of telling him about One for All, but not somewhere in the open like this, where anyone could hear them.

Izuku huffed and grabbed his hand and with serious eyes freed her red cheeks from his grasp, pulled him back into the tunnel, this time checking the corridors.

She leaned against the wall again, looking at the floor.

"All Might gave you your shitty quirk, didn't he?" Katsuki growled, she only stared into nothingness.

Of course, he already knew, it was Katsuki Bakugo they were talking about, the cleverest guy in the class.

"Tell me how,"

Izuku sighed, then told him everything, from the moment she had been bullied in the classroom to the entrance exam, never looking up at him.

"That's fucking crazy," the blonde said, his fingers pulled at his blond locks, trying to make sense of her words.

"Yep,"

They stayed in silence, digesting the information.

"Why did you tell me?" Katsuki exploded, and she finally looked up at him, her eyes wide.

"Because you told me to!"

"But that's fucking serious Deku!" he passed his hands over his hair again, making it stand even more, "Did All Might let you tell me?"

"I asked him after our first battle, he said if I trusted you I could, telling me that I needed all the help I could get,"

"What did he mean by that?"

She shrugged.

"You don't know anything, do you?" he huffed.

"I-"

"Forget it, let's fucking go,"

They went back to the arena in silence, Izuku throwing him inquisitive looks.

"What, Deku?"

"Don't you have anything to say about-" she moved her hands around before whispering: "One for All,"

"The only thing I have to say for now is that it doesn't matter if you were chosen or whatever, I'm still going to crush you and be number one,"

She smiled not expecting anything else.

"But you better catch up, All Might is expecting a hell lot out of you," he smirked down at her, then it fell, "and maybe ask the guy something about the damn quirk!" he yelled-whispered.

By then they had arrived at the stadium, by their left she found the girls in cheerleader uniforms.

"Why are you guys wearing that?" she said getting closer after leaving Katsuki with Kirishima and the rest of his friends, pointing at the clothes.

"Mineta and Kaminari tricked us!" Yaoyorozu cried out in despair, "How'd I get tricked by Mineta?!"

"Don't worry Momo-chan! You guys look very cute," Izuku tried to cheer her up.

"I know right?!" Hagakure said, jumping, "And we still have time before the main event! Might as well enjoy! Want to join us Izuchan?"

"No thank you, I will sit somewhere quiet and relax for a-" she said.

**"We are now starting recreation and once that is over, the last event will start! We will be setting the sixteen winners of the last event to have one-on-one battles!"**

"A tournament?! so we will be on the famous stage we see on TV!" Kirishima cheered.

**"The matchups will be decided by lot, once they are done with we will have the festivities, then the tournament! Let's start then-"**

"Excuse me, Midnight," Ojiro called, making everyone around him to look his way, "I'd like to withdraw,"

**"Why Ojiro-kun?"** she asked, over the rest of his friends and classmates cries of surprise.

"I have no memories of the Cavalry Battle, it's probably his quirk," he said, glaring at the purple-haired guy, "I know it's a big opportunity, but everyone made it here by their own efforts, and I'm standing here without knowing how or why,"

The girls told him not to worry and do it anyway. But it was his honour they were talking about so Midnight accepted Ojiro's withdraw and one from a kid from class B.

Their replacements were chosen, and without further ado, the One-on-One battles were settled.

_'If I win my first two matches, I'll be against Todoroki, but before I have to fight this Shinsou guy and Tenya,'_

"You are Izuku Midoriya, right?"

She turned around seeing the purple-haired boy, Shinsou.

"I-"

"Midoriya, come over here," Ojiro cut her off, pulling her towards him, Shinsou walked away, smirking, "don't answer him,"

"Why not?" she asked, facing her classmate.

He looked around and signalled her to follow him. He took her to the preparation room and explained to her the guy's quirk, brainwashing.

"But how can I win against a quirk like that?" she asked, slumping on her chair, just after to regret the action when her wing bones dug into her back.

"I don't have the slightest idea, I don't remember anything after I replied to him, I think that's when he takes over,"

"So I can't slip up and say anything,"

"It doesn't seem like this all-mighty ability you are putting it to be, but I think there's a way of breaking the hold he has,"

"What?!" she straightened up, hope blossoming on her chest.

"Physical contact, but I don't know how strong the contact has to be and the situation you will be in, there won't be any unless if it comes from the guy himself,"

She sighed, "Thanks, Ojiro-kun! That was a great help,"

They both got up and he gave her an unsure look before saying, "No worries, and... win this for me?"

They fist-bumped, and he left her to prepare.

* * *

**"Now is the moment you've all been waiting for! The one-on-one tournament!"** Izuku heard Present Mic blab away as she walked towards her entrance.

"Hey!" she turned around and saw All Might coming her way, "it's good to see that you are finally getting the hang of One for All!"

Izuku looked away, ashamed, "Actually I'm not getting the hang of it, at all, I still have to concentrate a lot to not break anything, if I hadn't my healing quirk it would be far worse, 'cause if I lose control for a second I break or it just doesn't work at all,"

He hummed a bit, tapping his lips, "If we put it in numbers I believe that your body can only take 5% of One for All, way more than the first time you used it,"

"If you say it like that, it's as if I only got this far, and without others' help-"

"Stop that you princess of nonsense!" The pro hero banged his hand on her head, making her bite her own tongue, "is it with a sad face like that, that you want to become a hero? Listen up kid, when you feel like that, it's the moment to smile the brightest, because you already got this far and there's still a long road ahead of you! And don't forget, I'll be right here with you," he pointed at himself with a big grin.

They shared a smile, then she remembered the Katsuki thing, but before she could say anything he gently pushed her towards the stage.

**"Here is the first match! On the right comes Izuku Midoriya the little angel that is keeping her streak of victories steady! And on the left the only general-course representative! Hitoshi Shinsou who surprised us all by getting past the Cavalry Battle!"** Present Mic declares as both opponents enter the arena, **"the rules are simple, the first one to knock the other down, push the other out of bounds or make them surrender, wins! Oh and do whatever you want, there ain't no restrictions! But of course, no killing, because a true hero never takes lives!"**

"'Give up' huh?" Shinsou said through the chaos, "This will test our strength of will, won't it Izuku Midoriya? But if you really want it, you shouldn't worry about the 'how' unlike that idiot with a tail,"

**"Ready?! START!"**

"What kind of dumbass does that," he taunted.

The girl saw red. She had enough of this guy saying things like that about her friends and classmates, he didn't know them! He didn't know everything they all went through! The image of Shigaraki flashed in her mind as she made the mistake that could take her down.

"How can you say that?" Izuku yelled taking off the ground.

But she felt her brain click and she lost control of her own body and fell straight towards the ground.

"Gotcha," his victorious smirk was audible and she mentally kicked herself for letting her emotions take over.

**"What...? What happened to Midoriya?"**

Izuku tried to get up but she could only blink, she lost control of her own body.

**"Is she frozen? She is not even twitching!"**

"It must be nice to have a fighting quirk and have everything in hands reach," Shinsou said calmly getting closer, "now get up,"

And to everyone's surprise, she obeyed her normally bright green eyes lifeless and glassy.

"Turn around," he continued, "and get out of the ring,"

And she did, her wings dragging on the floor.

She could hear Present Mic's comments, but she could also hear her friends calling, telling her to do something.

_'I have to do something! I have to pay for everyone who helped me!'_

And as she thought that she saw All Might at the entrance to the tunnel, she could see in his eyes the terror.

_'Damn! not like this!'_

That's when she saw it, 8 pairs of glowing eyes that took her mentor's place on the dark of the tunnel.

_'What the heck!'_

She felt One for All take over her whole body, shining light over her foggy mind and making her twitch her finger on the exact moment before she took the fatal step out of the ring, provoking a massive wind rush.

**"She stopped!"**

Izuku slowly turned around her finger glowing and a mixture of rage and confusion on her eyes.

"How did you do that?" Shinsou asked angrily and she clasped her uninjured hand on her mouth, "Come on, answer little girl!" she just stared at him and he huffed, "Now I see how you were number one on the entrance exam, such power on one finger, it makes me jealous,"

Izuku kept quiet, biting her tongue to keep quiet as she flew towards him and he kept taunting her, thinking she didn't understand him, but she did very well. She spent fourteen years of her life as a Quirkless little girl, being bullied by her classmates, not even her mother and her best and only friend believed she could make it.

But now she could.

She grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him backwards, he punched her in the gut, throwing her back to her feet, she tucked her wings tight and grabbed the hand he was using to put distance between them and threw him over her shoulder with a push of her wing at his legs, and in the next second he was out of bounds.

**"Shinsou is out of bounds!"** said Midnight, **"Midoriya advances to round 2!"**

**"It was a quick kind meh first battle with a little surprise at the beginning but let's cheer for our two competitors anyways!"** Present Mic laughed.

"Shinsou," Izuku called when they both were up on their feet, he glanced at her, holding his shoulder he hit the cement floor with, "why heroics?" They stared a bit and he looked away.

"We can't choose what our hearts long for," and he walked past her.

But both of them could hear the praises for Shinsou, coming from heroes and students on the stands.

"These results could bring me to review and then the Heroics course, and I'll show all of you that I can be the best hero," Shinsou looked at her and she smiled.

"I'll be waiting-" her brain clicked again and he laughed.

"You ain't like most people, are you? They wouldn't answer me after what happened, if you keep that up it will be easy for me to best you, and please... don't lose in a ridiculous way," and he walked away and freed her from his quirk.

Izuku ran back to All Might who forced her to go to Recovery Girl when he saw her fingers.

The older woman checked her fingers and wrapped them up to be sure it healed completely, then turned around and hit All Might who had been talking about the battle.

"Quit putting pressure on the girl!"

"But it's necessary!"

"Uhm... All Might, I think I hallucinated when Shinsou was controlling me," Izuku said, putting an end to the adults' unstoppable bickering

"What?" They asked.

"Right before I freed myself of Shinsou's brainwashing, I saw in the tunnel 8 pairs of glowing eyes, and just after seeing them One for All took control and this happened," she raised her fingers, "but what caught my attention was that one of them had your hairstyle All Might, but I don't know if it was me imagining things or if it was One for All's other users, they were 8 before me right?"

All Might's face turned into one of shock and blood dripped down his shin, "that's creepy!"

"You don't know anything about it?"

The number 1 hero cleaned his face from the blood and leaned on a table behind him, "It actually happened to me when I was younger, it must mean you are close to making One for All your own, and you are right, what you saw are the vestiges of the previous users, but they can't affect you like you can't affect them, so it can't have been them who helped you, rather than your own resolve got you out of that situation!"

"Yeah you must be right, All Might," she smiled not really believing his words.

She got up to leave, but she remembered what she had wanted to tell him before her fight with the General Course guy.

"Uhm, All Might, I have something to tell you," she said in a low voice.

"What is it?" he frowned at her sudden change of demeanour.

"I... I told Katsuki about One for All," she looked up at him.

He scratched the back of his head then sighed, "I should have guessed it was going to be soon," but suddenly his frown became a smirk, "Then you can be sure young Bakugo will be right by your side to help you too," and that made Recovery Girl nod and smile too.

She went red, her eyes going from one adult to the other, "All Might!"

He laughed, "Toshinori, we came so far together, please call me by my given name,"

She smiled her cheeks still red, "Thanks Toshi!" he ruffled up her hair "anyway, thank you both very much," she smiled then left the infirmary.

When she got to their stand, she saw nobody on the arena.

"Hey, Deku-chan! Are you okay?" Uraraka asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine,"

"You lost 2 battles," Iida informed her from behind her.

"Whose?" she turned around.

"Kaminari's against Shiozaki,"

"The vines girl, the one from 1B?" she asked as she sat beside Ochaco, Tenya sitting at the greenette's other side.

Uraraka nodded beside her, "she won super quick! He went to attack but her vines went WOSH! And then she captured him! It was super fast!" The girl said giggling.

"Hey!" They heard the blond boy cry from somewhere behind them.

"And mine against Hatsume," Iida continued.

"And how was it?"

Uraraka started giggling beside her.

"She used me as a model for her products," the boy sighed, his head hanging low in shame.

Uraraka burst out laughing "she started talking about her 'babies' for a good chunk of the battle! And every time he went for an attack she used the gadgets! And when she was done she just walked out!"

Izuku joined in on her laughter but was cut off by Present Mic.

"**Now for our fourth battle, we have a battle against classmates! Hanta Sero and Shoto Todoroki from class 1-A!"**

Izuku frowned, she didn't like the idea of underestimating her classmates, but she didn't see a way for Sero to win this one. The battle started and Sero didn't wait, he threw his tapes out and grabbed Shoto, making circles, getting ready to throw him out of the ring.

But Todoroki didn't let him, just as Izuku predicted.

With one swift motion of his left foot, the boy created a gigantic wall of ice that nearly froze Izuku and her classmates up on the stands.

"What…?" She asked looking up at it then back at the boys.

**"Can you move Sero?"** Midnight asked from somewhere on the other side of the massive wall of ice.

"N-no" his voice came from the ice.

Being declared the winner Todoroki went up to his opponent and with his left hand melted the ice.

Izuku studied his face and came to a conclusion: he looked way more sad than angry.

The battles went on but nothing was as memorable and melancholic than that battle.

"Well, it seems I should get going," Uraraka got up.

"Oh, it's your turn against Kacchan!" Izuku said, getting up ashamed she had forgotten, "if you want I can help-"

"Thanks, Deku-chan but I have to do this on my own," her gaze steeled, "wish me luck!" She smiled.

"Good luck," Izuku and Iida said, and she walked away.

Just after Katsuki came up the stairs, she grabbed his hand and looked up smiling, "good luck to you too Kacchan!"

He stared at her then smirked, "I don't need luck," then he looked away, "but thanks," and walked up the stairs.

The battle that followed wasn't something she had been expecting, none of them was.

Izuku had been expecting, and she was very ashamed to have thought that, that Katsuki at the first minute would have blown her pink-cheeked friend of the arena.

But, Uraraka held her ground, making her very proud.

When she saw the boulders high on the sky she had smiled proudly, for her friend had come up with a great plan on her own, but it made her worried for Katsuki.

But he blew up the boulder clean out of the sky with a way bigger explosion than she knew he could do with straining himself.

In the end, Uraraka fell from exhaustion caused by her own quirk making Katsuki the winner.

After she got over her initial shock, Izuku and Iida got up to get ready for their match, giving each other a respectful smile.

When the time came to it, both friends were facing each other.

**"Now for the first battle of the second round we have, Tenya Iida the speedster and representative from class 1-A! And against him comes our leading champion! The girl who has come on top of every single battle! Izuku Midoriya!"**

They slightly bowed at each other and the battle started.

Iida went for a fast kick, but Izuku was already flying towards him, the smaller girl grabbed the boy's leg with a punch that threw Iida off balance, and when he went for his special move 'Recipro Burst' Izuku went under him and using the impulse threw him to the ground.

He got up and tried to go after her again, kicking her in the legs she fell on her back, her wings dug at her back. He grabbed at her wings and pulled to throw her out of the ring, but she flapped her wings making him lose his grip on her, left with only some scattered feather and fuming engines, but he didn't stop, trying to grab the flying Izuku again. The girl, however, gave him a hit with her wing that threw him off balance and with a finger-smash while still airborne he was out of bounds.

**"And Izuku Midoriya wins again!"** Present Mic yelled, **"she is on fire!"**

Izuku helped Iida to get back up and he looked away with a sad expression in his eyes.

The greenette tried to use the rest of the battles as a distraction, Todoroki against Ibara was instructional when he used his ice to freeze and break the girl's vines and immobilize her; Ashido against Kirishima was predictable and Katsuki against Tokoyami went like a blur for Izuku, all her thoughts already focused on her next opponent: Todoroki.

When the last battle ended she got up and without looking at anyone went up to her prep room.

"Hey! Deku!"

She jumped up, surprised on the middle of the corridor when she heard Katsuki call.

"Kacchan! Don't do that!" she held her chest as her heart hit her ribcage with fury.

"It's not my fault you don't pay attention to what you're doing!" The boy had finished coming up the stairs, "don't you dare lose against that Icy-hot! The final has to be between us so I can show you I'm better than you even with All Might's quirk!" he finished in a whisper

Izuku smiled at his way of wishing her good luck, "of course Kacchan! Oh, and I have to tell what happened during my battle against Shinsou,"

"What happened?" he frowned.

She explained quickly in a whisper.

His frown deepened, "Maybe they just affected you enough so you could move your finger but not enough to control your whole body," he theorized.

_'Kacchan is really clever,' _she had a small smile.

"Let's talk after the battles, okay?" and he nodded with a frown.

After that, she continued on her way to the prep room. She had been worrying about the fight but she was amazed at how fast Katsuki could lift her worries, so when she went out of the room she had a big smile, All Might style.

But the smile fell quickly when she saw the man that was waiting for her.

"En-Endeavour!"

"So you are the famous number one student?" He said monotonously like his son.

"What are… you doing here?"

"Don't think I didn't see your quirk, very powerful indeed, very similar to All Might's too," he pointed.

She was getting tired of everyone suspecting already.

"I don't know what you are getting at," she said walking past, tired enough of the situation to lose all kinds of fear of the man at the moment.

"Shoto's duty is to overcome All Might, you having a very similar quirk to the man will make your fight a stepping stone to him," he held onto her shoulder, "don't hold back, little girl,"

The man let go of her and started walking away.

"It's obvious to anyone that I'm not All Might," she said, her words stopping him.

"Of course, it's obvious you-"

"Yeah," she spat, cutting him off and locking eyes, "so it should be obvious to you too that Shoto isn't you," her voice was paused, and low, aggressive even, the need to help Shoto Todoroki bleeding through them.

The flames around the man's body went wild as the girl went up to the tunnel and inside the arena.


	11. Chapter 11: Our Powers and Limits

Izuku entered the stadium still pissed, Endeavour might have tried to ask for her help but the way and what escaped from her ideals. But her name wasn't Izuku Midoriya if she didn't help Shoto to overcome whatever trauma his crappy father put him through and make him accept his quirk.

"**Now we start our first battle of the semi-finals!" **Present Mic's voice echoed through the stadium, "**One of the fights we've all been waiting for! The two students that have been at the top the whole day! But now it's time to see who's the best! It's Todoroki vs Midoriya!"**

"Ready Midoriya?" Todoroki asked in his always monotone voice.

"Are you?"

"**Start!"** the loud teacher cut off.

Todoroki didn't wait, he made a gigantic wall of ice not leaving many choices for Izuku. Not wanting to lose her whole arm so soon on the fight she chose to do a finger smash full power to stop the ice in its tracks.

When the ice did stop she already started to heal her finger.

And they kept at it, create the ice, smash the ice and repeat.

"You might be trying to keep the fight going but I'll finish this soon enough," Shouto said when all four fingers on Izuku's right hand were broken and healing, "I won't give you time to heal yourself,"

He then came running at her, bringing with him a wall of ice and attacking from above, Izuku opened her wings and flew out of range, nearly getting caught by the ice.

She huffed, using her healing tired her and the cold wasn't helping, Todoroki was physically strong, had a powerful quirk and had a good strategy and judgement of the situation, it was going to be really hard to beat him.

"You are only defending and dodging, is that making you tired?" the boy asked stoically, "Or does your healing affect your stamina?"

But Izuku saw right through his facade, he was shivering.

She remembered long ago when she was still four and Kacchan had just gotten his quirk and had explained to her how quirks were physical abilities and _did_ have limits.

"I thank you, Midoriya, for stretching this, I can see that my father is pissed, And with that hand still healing it's better for you to stop and heal fully, so let's end this," he said and threw an ice attack again.

But she wasn't having it, this wasn't the end not if she had a say in it.

"Todoroki!" she yelled, surprising him, his mismatched eyes getting rounder, "Do tell me, who said I was done?!" she looked up at him, her eyes had never been so bright like they were now, then she threw another finger smash that made him topple.

He made an ice wall right before going out of bounds.

"You have so many broken fingers! Why are you going so far?! what is keeping you going!" he yelled, anger flowing through his words.

She stood tall, her five broken fingers still glowing their faint green, "You're shivering, Todoroki," She huffed, "Quirks are physical abilities, so that means you are reaching your limit because you're stubborn enough to refuse to use your left side to heat up," she looked at her right hand where most of her broken fingers were, "Everyone is giving their all to achieve their goals, whatever they are, and you are disrespecting them by only using half of your power! We haven't put a scratch on each other! So stop half-assing this and give me everything you got damnit!" she squeezed her fingers feeling her bones snapping back to place, somehow quicker.

"My shitty father talked to you, didn't he? He put you up to this! You both are pissing me off!" he yelled and came running at her.

But if he thought he was the only one that was pissed he was _very _wrong. She was pissed that he didn't believe that she was just trying to help him and didn't get that he wasn't rejecting his father this way he was just breaking himself!

So when he got closer she dodged his hand and went to punch him in the gut with One for All covering the arm that was most broken. She was bleeding, her quirk not being able to heal that many bones being broken so many times.

"**Izuku landed a hit! But she looks more tired than Todoroki does! Do you guys see the blood?!" **

"Finally decided to go on the offensive, huh?" he spat.

"Someone has to beat some sense into you, Shoto! And this is the perfect time 'cause you're not the only one who is slowing down, your ice is getting weaker too!"

Todoroki beat his foot in the ground, ice coming towards Izuku who wasn't able to make a fist with her right arm anymore, so she made a finger smash with one of the three remaining fingers on her left arm.

"Why are you going this far?!" Todoroki asked again.

This time however she didn't stop, she came flying at him, yelling, "I want to meet the expectations put on my shoulders, to become a smiling, dependable, cool hero who everyone can look up too and see that everything is going to be okay!" she punched him with her left arm sending him flying, he had been distracted, she knew that her words were going through that thickly ice-covered head of his, "that's why I'm giving my all, to repay the trust that was given to me, of course, I can't begin to understand your experiences but if you become the number one just with half of your power, then you are not really serious about denying him everything!"

He hit the ground still inside the bounds, his right side nearly all frozen, Izuku was standing up, both her arms broken but glowing brighter than before, she would later discover that her emotions controlled her healing, making her broken members shine brighter and heal faster. She could hear her bones snapping back into place, her muscles were slowly coming back together from getting a bit of healing, and her blood was dripping down her arms her skin still not getting any of it. But she didn't care, didn't even feel it, all that mattered at the moment was helping her friend.

"Shut up!" he yelled but didn't move.

"That's why I have to win!" Izuku punched him again when he was back on his feet, but didn't let him fly away by grabbing him by his collar with her bleeding fingers.

Todoroki's mismatched eyes met her emerald ones, "I'll show my father-" he started in a low voice.

"Your power-!" She yelled in his face making his eyes go wide by the emotion in her voice and gleam in her eyes, "-Is yours! Not his!"

Izuku saw it, the understanding in his mismatched orbs, and felt the sudden heat coming from his body and quickly dropped him getting away just before his left side burst into flames.

The yells of surprise coming from the stadium were deafening but Izuku was still able to hear Todoroki's voice, smile obvious in it, "You spent the whole fight saying that you wanted to win, so tell me why the fuck are you trying to inspire me damnit? Which one of us is half-assing now?"

The smile Shouto gave her made her smile right back, making her brain drown in excitement and pride, making the healing boil in her whole body.

"What is that smile for? You might be healing faster but in this situation, I'll win,"

Her smile became bigger as both opponents hit their feet on the ground their quirks being set wild and one running while the other went flying towards each other.

At that moment the teachers decided to stop it, everyone was thinking one of the two thoughts, '_Midoriya isn't going to be able to heal,'_ or '_they've come too far,'_

Cementoss slammed his hands on the floor creating massive walls between the opponents, Midnight ripped her sleeve letting her quirk flow to stop them, but it was already too late, One for All and Shoto's fire came in contact with the cement at full force, producing a gigantic explosion sending them flying backwards and upwards.

Izuku somehow was still slightly conscious and with a last straw of power, she beat her wings once using One for All so she was sure she wasn't, at least, too far away from the boundary line.

The silence that came next was deafening, the smoke on the stage blinded everyone to the actual result of the match. Murmurs broke at once, theories and yells of confusion were heard.

When the vapour came down they found Izuku on her back breathing heavily, not out of bounds and found Todoroki leaning on an ice wall he had created after the explosion, but it was still on the outside of the ring.

"**Todoroki is out of bounds! Midoriya passes to the finals!" **Midnight breaks through the voices with such awe at the young girl.

Todoroki got up and walked towards Izuku, his clothes burnt, wet and smeared with her blood.

The green-haired girl's whole body was glowing, but the brightest thing was her smile and eyes, he dropped beside her, and was able to hear the cracking, snapping off her body.

"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly.

"Yeah give me some time, the adrenaline has just dropped and I can actually feel the bones moving under my skin," she chuckled.

He looked to his left and saw the infirmary boots coming, "Why did you help me?"

"You were hurting," she said locking eyes with the boy, "and that's what friends do, isn't it Shoto-kun?"

He nodded and got up when the bots arrived and took her away.

When Izuku got to the recovery room she had most of her bigger bones healed.

Recovery Girl had kissed her, healing the rest of her bones and when All Might arrived she had already wrapped her arms so the wounds wouldn't get infected while Izuku slowly healed it.

Toshinori stared at her arms, "Her fingers were shattered as was her right arm, her joints were in horrible condition, if she didn't have a healing quirk she wouldn't be able to use One for All again without control," Recovery Girl said, "You have to teach her another way, her own healing wasn't able to keep up! You should thank her quirk to actually be able to know where each piece of bone goes, if not I would have to proceed a surgery! But she will still have scars!"

The blond man stayed in silence.

"She admires you, to the point she is willing to break herself, you lit a fire and now she is overdoing it so she can make you proud, so for her good don't praise her,"

The door suddenly opened to a bang, Iida, Ochaco, Tsuyu and Mineta burst inside asking about Izuku, behind them Katsuki was frowning at All Might who had backed up from the green-haired girl who had just come back to her senses after the shouts.

"No, everyone out! She needs peace so she can finish sewing her muscles up!" Recovery Girl shooed them away and received afraid gasps.

"I'm sorry Toshi," Izuku called when everyone was out again.

Toshinori looked at her confused, "Why would you be sorry?"

"I should have focused on the fight, I went out of my way to make Shoto use his left side, I should have focused on winning,"

The man sat beside her, "What you did to help young Todoroki was very hero-like, but you should learn to pick your timing, that was the worst moment to do it,"

"It was just so frustrating that he didn't get it, I lost my purpose,"

"Calling you a fool won't change what happened but you gave young Todoroki a new perspective and that is what makes a hero,"

After their exchange Recovery Girl shooed All Might out of there so Izuku could heal fully before the battlefield was remade and who knew how much time it would take Katsuki and Kirishima's fight.

It took Izuku a whole of 7 minutes to heal her muscles, more 2 for her skin to seal and 1 minute to regrow the feathers that had fallen off. The small lady gave her another kiss to be sure, and Izuku took the rest of the pause to rest.

When the time was up, the old lady took off the cast and changed the bandages, "you shouldn't go out there, you proved everything you had to prove,"

"I know, but I owe Kacchan that," she sighed, staring at her now scarred hand.

"Ugh…" the woman growled, "Young love and their necessity to show something that is right under your nose,"

Izuku's cheeks burned red, "N-no, i-it i-isn-n't l-lo-love!" she stuttered.

"Yeah, tell yourself that how much you want it, sweety," she threw the old bandages out, "Now get out of here before I change my mind and tell Midnight to call of your fight,"

Izuku obeyed throwing on her shirt carefully around the base of her now fully feathered wings and took out for the door.

"So, how are you?"

Izuku jumped at the unexpected voice, she turned around quickly meeting the red ruby eyes staring at her.

She didn't think her heart could keep getting this much surprise.

"Ka-Kacchan! You scared me!" She held her T-shirt over her beating heart.

He came closer, taking her shaking hand on his calloused one and analysed it.

"You should take more care of yourself, moron," he traced the scars on her hand slowly.

She stared at their hands, remembering what the old woman had just said and the red came back in full force to her cheeks. Of course, Kacchan didn't like her, she angered him way too much for that!

"You should forfeit," he said quietly, "you are too injured,"

Her head snapped back up, eyes wide, "What?!"

"All Might told me about your injuries, you should be in bed resting," he looked back up at her, his eyes serious and angry.

"But- our match!"

"I don't want to fight you if you are injured," he showed her new scar on her hand, "and I want you at full force so I can show to everyone I'm fucking stronger,"

"But-"

"No buts Izuku!"

There he goes again, calling her by her given name and making her heart stutter.

"Come, let's tell Midnight,"

"No Katsuki!" She pulled her hand back, "I will fight,"

That made him growl, "you stubborn little shit! You are going to get yourself more hurt until there's no way for you to heal!"

"I will prove to everyone I'm strong enough!"

"You already did!" He grabbed her shoulders.

They stared into each other's eyes.

"I'm not forfeiting," she said in a collected voice.

He growled and grabbed her hand, leading her away to where the R-Rated hero was.

"Hey, Midnight," he called when the woman came into view, she was talking with Cementos.

"Oh, if it isn't the fired-up little angel," she said, her eyes on Izuku, "are you ready to fight or not? Recovery Girl didn't tell me anything,"

Izuku looked around and her eyes went to the stand where her class was then, looking at Midnight she said, "Yeah," she looked at Katsuki, "I'll show everyone I don't give up," she looked back at the woman giving her most sure smile.

Midnight cracked her whip with a strange grin on her face, "what a sincere and gorgeous young lady! I love it!" then she turned around towards the microphone, "**After the healing, it has been decided that the fight against Bakugo and Midoriya is still going! We will be giving them some time to prepare while we continue with Todoroki and Kirishima's fight for third place!"**

The teenagers shared a look, Katsuki was annoyed, Izuku was happy to be able to show her potential again.

"Let's fucking go," the blonde took her hand again and pulled her back into their place in the stands.

"Deku-chan! Are you okay? Are you sure you should fight?!" Ochaco fluttered to her side.

"I'm fine Ochachan! I'm healed," she said it moving her right hand for them to see, but that had been a bad idea. That was the hand full of new scars.

Everyone jumped at her with concern. All of them telling her not to fight.

"Guys I'm fine, my quirk healed my bones and muscles and Recovery Girl made sure that my joints were bone-free, I am okay," she tried to comfort them.

"Bone-free?!" Mineta cried out.

"But you have scars now Izuchan!" Tsuyu said taking her hand.

"I used way too much of my quirk to heal my skin fully, but these are marks that show I helped someone," she smiled brightly, blinding her friends.

"Okay, that's enough extras! Let us fucking sit! She has to rest before our fight!" Katsuki growled.

**"Let's start the fight guys! To one side the hard as rock hero, Eijiro Kirishima! In the other, we have the guy who surprised us all with his fire outburst, Shouto Todoroki!"**

Izuku jumped down the last steps to have a better look of the fight. Todoroki had a sad look in his eyes, and she knew where it came from, even without actually seeing it: Endeavour.

The fight started and Eijiro hardened his body and ran at Shouto who made an ice barrier.

The red-haired boy broke through it, and Shouto jumped out of the hardened boy's way who was getting too close.

_'He isn't in it!'_ Izuku thought in alarm when she saw him get too close to the boundary.

She got up and held into the metal bars and yelled, "Come on Shoto! You can do it!"

The mismatched boy looked at her and his stance changed and in a blink of an eye, his fire lit up and went off again.

But it was hot enough to melt the ice under Eijiro's feet and make him fall. And just with a half-felt move of his foot, ice shot towards Kirishima, locking him inside the cold cage.

Izuku was just staring at the melancholic Shoto as Midnight announced his victory.

"His shitty father must have fucking talked to him," Katsuki whispered from beside her.

They both followed Shoto walk out of the stage with his head hanging low with their eyes.

"We should go," Izuku pointed out and both went to start their fight, Katsuki drumbling about stubborn green heads.

* * *

**"And here we go, everyone! The final we've been waiting for! From our right our firecracker, number two in the entrance exam! Katsuki Bakugo! And from our left the little angel and number one until now and let's see if she can keep it after the blow she received in her last fight! Izuku Midoriya!"**

They stood facing each other, totally serious and even when Midnight screamed the start they stayed still.

"I'm not going to take it easy on you, Deku,"

"I didn't expect anything less Kacchan,"

And then they jumped towards each other, Katsuki blowing his way while she flew.

He threw an explosion towards her while she punched, then they did it again, and again, until it was so much pressure they stopped, their feet banging against the floor while the wind and smoke smacked in everyone's face.

Izuku's fist was broken and slightly burnt but already healing.

"Your healing isn't going to be enough this time Deku! I'm going to through you out of bounds soon enough!" He smirked, even though he was really trying to minimize his output.

But she smirked right back, "you're twitching Kacchan," he used too big of an explosion on his previous fight and was now using too many consecutively.

He looked at his right arm and both saw it doing just as she had said.

He growled and jumped again and made another explosion, this one coming from both hands. Izuku flew out of the way, but the tips of her wings were scorched.

She sighed, why couldn't those damn feathers be fireproof?

She made a wider stroke of her wings to blow the smoke away from her vision, but Katsuki had his hands glowing in her face and then BOOM, she was flying upside down towards the stands.

Before she hit anything she punched the air and she was going back inside the bounds.

"That ain't going to be that easy, Kacchan!" She said when her feet hit the ground in front of him, making a small dent in the cement, her legs shaking already from the exhaustion of the day.

"Good," was the only thing he said, then they're back at it, Izuku with a finger punch and Katsuki with his explosion.

All her fingers were glowing and hurting, no amount of adrenaline was enough to hide it at this point, she was too tired.

_'Should've listened to Recovery Girl and Kacchan,'_ she thought after her last left-arm finger was broken.

"You've reached your fucking limit," the blonde stated.

She gave him a small smile and took off running, powering up her arm.

Katsuki held his ground, both his palms glowing from his quirk, but he didn't hit her full on. His left hand made an explosion to stop her failing quirk, as the right one came behind him to send him flying towards her. So when the first one hit her body and she was sent toppling away from exhaustion and hit the ground just out of bounds she stayed there, huffing as he was already following her.

**"Midoriya is out of bounds! Bakugo is the champion of the tournament!"** Yelled Midnight.

"Deku!" She heard Katsuki yell as he came into her camp of vision, he kneeled down beside her, "you stubborn- ugh! I can't even insult you damn it!"

"Sorry," she whispered, "thanks for not burning my feathers, way too troublesome to heal them," she blabbered.

"Shut up!" He sat down, "the bots are coming, just hold on for a little bit,"

"I'm not dying, Kacchan," she slowly sat up, he held her good arm to help her stay up.

"But you fucking look like it!"

"I'm fine,"

But as the words came out of her mouth she fell back, she would've hit her head if her wings hadn't stopped her fall.

As the bots arrived, followed by some of their classmates.

And as she was taken away, she fell unconscious, a smile gracing her lips.

* * *

Author:

Hey guys! Sorry to be changing here so suddenly but I needed to ask.

I'm writing right now the next chapter, and as you know it's when the kids choose their hero names and I really don't know if I should stick with Deku or put another name to our little girl.

So I came here to ask you guys, what do you think?

Leave it in the comments and if you think I should change it give some advice!

Thanks, everyone for reading!

Love you guys very much!


	12. Chapter 12: Promises of the Past

Author's Note:

Hey Guys!

Sorry for the wait again. I'll try to update more frequently.

I ain't here to make excuses, however, so I was re-reading and as the very indecisive author that I'm I made some changes throughout the story some major ones so I advice to maybe go back and read again, sorry…

But I also saw that I never really explained the new quirk… apologies again.

I am really bad at this if you haven't noticed...

So here you have it guys:

**Angel:** **angel is a quirk that gives its user cutting-edge wings and healing powers that could be used to heal the user, if they achieve a high level of control over it (the user doesn't have any, it just activates when they are hurt) and they are able to canalise it they might be able to heal others.**

**The healing capabilities of the Quirk have a limit, the more it's used higher are the chances to leave marks on the tissues. It starts at the deeper point of the problem until the more superficial, so the deeper the wound higher are the chances of having scars.**

**While at work, the healing leaves a glow in the area and it indicates how strong are the emotions put into it, for example when Izuku was fighting Shoto she was so into it and had such determination to help him the healing glow was so strong that it spread to the rest of her body in a higher strength.**

And that's it guys, hope that it helped.

Let's get back to our little heroes in the making!

Don't forget to review!

And I apologize, again, for all the inconveniences.

* * *

Izuku woke up hours after the ceremony.

She was fully healed but felt sore all over and didn't have any intention to rise from her position now that the tournament was over with.

She moved herself a bit to a more comfortable position but she nearly fell from the bed when the cry pierced her ears.

"Midoriya! You are awake,"

From behind her came the voice of All Might. All that situation left her with a big sense of deja vu.

'_Just like the time I received "Angel",'_

"Hey, there Toshi," She turned around to see his weakened form sitting on the chair beside her bed.

He looked tired and worried, and Izuku felt the guilt bubble in her mind for causing him that.

"I'm-"

"Don't apologize," he cut her, a hand high to emphasize as he passed his other one through his blond hair, "I should be the one to apologize, I pushed you into this, put too much pressure on your shoulders," he sighed and looked down.

"It's not your fault, actually," the small girl scratched her face, then saw the scars on her hands, "I should have seen I crossed the line," she put it in a fist, feeling her skin stretch, "but from now on I will think twice before choosing my battles,"

Their eyes crossed and he smiled sadly, but suddenly his eyes shone.

"Oh! I nearly forgot!" He took from his pocket a silver medal, "this is yours!" He carefully put it around her neck, "you should have seen! Young Bakugou was so angry that you weren't around so he could boost to you that he didn't even want to take the medal!"

The man might have said it in a cheerful voice but it was obvious he had been scared.

Izuku giggled.

"You should change, he is waiting for you outside," he sent her a wink and with that, the number one hero got up and left the girl blushing.

Izuku rose from the bed slowly, she noticed she didn't have any more bandages, but still full of scars from her broken bones, Shoto's fire and Katsuki's explosions. She put her uniform and placed her bag in-between her dark green wings. She left the nursery and found the explosive teenager waiting for her just like he had before their fight, this time, however, he looked pissed out of his mind.

"Hi Kacchan-" she greeted but he ignored her, walking away.

He looked furious, his golden medal strap around his hand, his knuckles were white from the unnecessary force put on them.

She walked behind him, not saying anything, she had never seen him this furious before.

She mustered a bit of courage and asked, "What's going on Kacchan?"

He turned around at lightning speed, spat his medal out of his mouth and said, "What's fucking wrong?! You are, shitty nerd! How could you fucking make me fight you and hurt you again? And why did I fucking let you? The old woman told me that your quirk nearly didn't heal your fucking joints!"

She took a step back, was he mad at her because they fought… and he won?

"You are mad because you won?"

"I'm mad because now everyone thinks I won against you because you were hurt! And freaking half n half thinks he can come and lecture me because of it! When it was him that put you in that state in the first place!" He huffed and screamed.

Izuku couldn't contain the smile, she knew that boy way too well. She got closer and touched his shoulder before he started screaming again.

"I'm fine Kacchan,"

The blond boy sighed heavily, shook her hand off his shoulder and started walking again.

"Come on nerd, we have the day off and your mother has been calling me all day,"

And both walked off in silence.

But all the quiet that was now their lives was just in the turning point to change forever...

* * *

_"Today another hero fell victim to the serial killer the Hero Killer Stain, but to the public relief the Turbo Hero: Ingenium is now recuperating from his injuries, however, we don't know if he is going back to his hero duties, we wish to send our best wishes to Ingenium and his family…"_

* * *

"Shoto! Where are you going?" Fuyumi asked.

"To the hospital,"

"What? Why?"

He was already out though.

Midoriya had made him think, remember things he didn't know he had forgotten and now he was going to make up to it, the years he had been away.

So he took the first step and went to see his mother.

The nurses were shocked to see him there, to say the least. They nearly didn't let him in, but with a bit of persuasion, the poor nurse that helped him gave his mother's room.

He reached the door and hesitated for a second, but then remembered Izuku's voice shouting at him to go on and give everything he had, so he opened the door.

"Mom," he called after crossing it.

"Shoto…" she whispered and turned to see him, her grey eyes surprised by the sight of her youngest son, but smiled like the thing that had been haunting her for years was finally, slowly disappearing.

* * *

"Seven times, Izuku! You made me faint seven times! You should consider your mother's heart before doing those kinds of things!" Inko informed her daughter, "of course I support you but I still worry!"

Izuku looked out the window, she knew she worried everyone around her. Her mother, Toshinori, Katsuki, her friends.

She had to find a different way to do this, some way so that she didn't end the fight broken.

* * *

Two days later.

In the train to U.A.

"Young lady! Young lady!" Izuku looked up from her phone, confused, "you are Midoriya from the U.A.'s sports festival ain't ya? You were super cool," the man said, pointing right at her.

She was being squished inside the train by everyone, and now someone was calling out to her to congratulate her, that was somewhat awkward.

When she was finally free from all the people she walked out into the rain, her wings serving her like an umbrella. But suddenly someone went past her at top speed, wetting her in the process.

"Come on Midoriya-chan, we are going to be late!"

'_Was that Tenya?'_

She reached her locker and beat her wings to dry them, she looked behind her nervously staring at Tenya.

Everyone knew about his brother and what happened to him.

"Uhm…" she started.

"There's no need to worry about my brother, and I have to apologize if he or I caused you trouble," the speckled boy said giving her a very fake smile, then left.

She was preoccupied, how could she not be! Ochaco had told her that he had left before the end of the tournament because of his brother, and he hadn't answered their text messages! She knew something was off.

And of course the image of Ingenium, bloody on the floor with cuts all over his body showed its ugly face right beside the scratchy sound of Shigaraki and the image of herself killing everyone she loved. She sighed.

"There were a lot of people that stopped me in the street!" Someone said when Izuku entered the classroom.

"Same here! Never had so many people staring at me!" Toru squeaked.

"Me too," Eijiro said.

Everyone was bubbling with the sudden attention they were receiving individually. But the moment the bell rang everyone went quiet and Aizawa came into the classroom.

"Morning," their sensei greeted in his forever monotone voice

"I see that you are off the bandages Aizawa Sensei," Tsuyu pointed out.

"Recovery Girl went over the border with her healing," he traced the scar under his right eye, the only proof of having his face used as a hammer by the Nomu, "Never mind that though, we are having Hero Informatics today,"

All the classroom went stiff, they all had been traumatized by the quizzes and the impossible quantity of information they had to memorize for those.

"You will be coming up with your Hero Names,"

And as he said it everyone cheered like crazy, overjoyed for not having to make any quiz and actually making something hero-like.

"But before we do that I'll show you the pro hero draft I mentioned the other day, It's based on who the pros think will be ready to join the hero workforce after some years of experience, and a way to show that they are interested in your future. But of course, there is always a chance for that number to grow or wane with time," he explained.

"So that means we still have to make our best the next years," Toru thought out loud.

"Yes, so now that we got that out of the way, let's see the draft,"

In the board appeared their names with the number of requests, at the top came Todoroki with four thousand, then Bakugo and Midoriya with more or less three thousand and a half, then the rest of the classroom with less than four hundred or none.

"Normally those numbers are more spread out, but our three over the top kids stole most of them," the teacher sighed, giving a glare at Izuku's scars.

The classroom stared at them and Izuku shrank on her seat, she hadn't expected to receive that many requests, or to just be so close to Katsuki's.

"For those who don't appear on the draft, don't worry we have a chance to work alongside heroes too," Aizawa appeased them, his next words came out more seriously, "we know you already had your share of experience with villains but this will be indispensable for when you become pros,"

The class cheered again, seeing where their hero names came in the story. Izuku joined her companions in their joy, the thoughts of blood and nightmares hidden again in her subconscious, when the door opened and in came the R-Rated hero, making everyone shut up and blush.

"You little cuties have to think very carefully about your names, they may be only provisional but they could still drag you down to hell as it can be what everyone calls you," Midnight slowly said, her hand on her head to show off, making Mineta droll behind her.

"That's quite true, so Midnight is going to supervise your choices as this is not my forte," their homeroom teacher yawned grabbing his canary yellow sleeping bag, "My only advice is that you focus on what you want to be as pros, as it can show what are your intentions," and with that he went to sleep.

Midnight passed down some small whiteboards for them to write on, Izuku took one and passed the rest. She didn't know what to choose as her codename, as a small girl she had a lot of names but all of them were related to All Might and now that she had his quirk she couldn't make it that obvious!

But what could it be?

She looked around, some of her classmates were in the same distressful situation as her, some had already chosen theirs, but all, one by one, wrote something down.

Fifteen minutes later Midnight called for someone to start the presentation.

Aoyama rose from his seat confidently, he stood in front of the class and with one exaggerated move showed his chosen name.

"I Cannot Stop Twinkling!" he said proudly.

The green-haired girl's eyes widened, she wasn't expecting that, but it was now obvious, it was coming from the sparkliest boy to ever sparkle.

Their teacher made some changes on his name but accepted it.

Next came Mina.

"Call me Alien Queen!" the pink girl exclaimed only to be refused by Midnight for the reference to a villain, even though fictional.

With that cruel shut down no one wanted to go next until Tsuyu rose from her own seat with confidence.

"I always wanted to be called this," she showed her name, "The Rainy Season Hero: Froppy,"

Midnight clapped her hands in joy, "I love it! It's so friendly!"

That calmed the rest of the class, giving them hope for their own chosen names.

The following ones were all fitting.

Eijirou as the Sturdy Hero: Red Riot, paying homage to the deceased Chivalrous Hero: Crimson Riot.

Kyoka as the Hearing Hero: Earphone Jack.

Mezo as the Tentacle Hero: Tentacole.

Hanta as the Taping Hero: Cellophane.

Mashirao as the Martial Arts Hero: Tailman.

Rikido as the Sweets Hero: Sugarman.

Mina came back with Pinky.

Denki as the Stun Gun Hero: Chargebolt.

Toru as the Stealth Hero: Invisible Girl.

Momo as the Everything Hero: Creati.

Shoto as… just Shoto… Izuku would have to talk to him about that...

Tokoyami as the Jet-Black Hero: Tsukuyomi.

Minoru as the Freshly Picked Hero: Grape Juice.

Koji as the Petting Hero: Anima

Then there was Katsuki with his overly on-the-face name, King Explosion Murder. Izuku let out a breath when the teacher turned him down.

Then Ochaco went up with Uravity making her friend smile proudly.

"Okay cuties just missing… Bakugo, Iida, and Midoriya…"

The young girl looked at Tenya worriedly as he wrote something then erased and got up.

With only that… Tenya.

She sighed and looked down at her board and went to write the one that came to her mind. But as she rose Katsuki went up.

She sat again, praying he wouldn't say something idiotic as _Lord_ Explosion Murder.

The blond reached the front and looking directly at her he showed his codename.

"The Explosion Hero: Ground Zero,"

Izuku's viridian eyes went wide, a memory coming back to her.

*Ten Years Ago*

Little Izuku and Katsuki were playing by the sandbox, the rest of the kids ignored them. Ever since Izuku came out as Quirkless to her classmates they were mean and excluded her from their games, but Katsuki, that had joined her class after they moved closer to where the green-haired girl lived, was always there with her, and sometimes even protected her, yelling all the way.

That day they had watched a new video of All Might. He had saved nearly a hundred people from a collapsing building in America, so they were coming up with hero names, inspired by the greatest hero to ever walk the Earth.

"I will be King Explosion Murder!" the little blond exclaimed, a small explosion making pop.

Izuku laughed a bit, "That's a silly name Kacchan!"

"What then Deku? Should I go by 'Kacchan'?" he said sarcastically.

Izuku didn't wince anymore by the name, she knew now that it wasn't meant to hurt her when it came out from his mouth.

She actually liked the smile that came with every time he said it.

"Of course not!" she thought a bit, "It has to be something cool, like All Might… but it has to show your quirk…"

Both kids thought, and Izuku suddenly remembered something the video they had seen that morning had said. She hadn't known what it meant so she had looked it up, it would be the perfect name for her best friend!

"I know!" she grabbed his small hand in hers, it had already marks of his quirk but it made her feel safe, "You will be the Explosion Hero: Ground Zero!"

"Ground Zero? What does that mean?" he frowned defensively, he knew her for some time now but was still a bit afraid that she would lie to him.

"It's the name for the closest point on earth to an explosion!"

The boy thought about it, then grinned, "I like it! Then if my name is a reference to my quirk and you don't have one… I know what yours should be…"

*Today*

She didn't know how she could have forgotten about that, the meaning of the name to him.

Their eyes locked and she saw as he came back to his seat the slim shine of hope from the promise they had done that day.

She erased what she had written and put the one he had chosen for her, just adding something new.

When in front of the classroom she didn't hesitate to show her name.

"Are you sure Midoriya? That can be your name for the rest of your career," Midnight tried to persuade the small girl to change it.

"I'm sure, I remembered the real meaning to this name and I can't imagine any other that fits what I want to be more than this one," the smile that appeared in her face was so bright that it made the cloud of doubt on everyone's mind to fade away, "From now on I'll be known as the Angelic Hero: Deku."

Viridian eyes meet crimson one, and their shared promise fresh on their mind.

*In the staffroom*

"Humm…" Cementos was checking the new requests from the first years, but one unknown name appeared, requesting All Might's young protege, "All Might… do you know any 'Gran Torino'?"

The Symbol of Peace's head snapped at the way too familiar name, "... umm… yes, why," he cautioned.

"Because he just requested for Midoriya to intern with him,"

All Might went livid, he knew he would have to introduce them but didn't expect it to be so soon!

He had to tell young Midoriya right away!

*Back to the classroom*

"So guys who are you going with?" Ojiro asked.

"I want Mt. Lady," Mineta said.

'_Of course,'_ everyone thought.

"You are making up fantasies, aren't you?" Tsuyu glared.

"I ain't" he tried, but everyone knew the smaller boy way too well to believe.

"It's strange that you didn't get any Ashido! You got pretty high in the tournament," the tailed boy pointed out.

The pink girl nodded sadly.

"Have you chosen one Deku-chan?" Ochaco asked. The group turned around towards the smaller girl of the class.

But she muttering and didn't listen to anything they had said.

"I got more than three thousand requests, so first I will research the potential heroes and divide them up based on their specialities. Then I'll look at the number of resolved incidents from their debut until now, then see which would be more helpful and instructive for me… I have to take my time and reflect on every aspect… maybe I should make a pro and con list…? No there are too many of them..." and she kept on going, until Katsuki slammed his hand on her notebook, grazing her still bandaged hand.

"Shut it, nerd," he didn't yell but his voice did stop the flow of words, then he smirked, "You don't even have your list!"

"Then let's remediate that," Aizawa called from the front of the room, "The internships start in a week, so I'll be handing out your list with the agencies, and to the ones who weren't in the draft will be receiving this list of agencies who are open for new interns, do choose carefully, many third years still regret who they chose, you have two days,"

Izuku analysed her list with care, she had very good choices but she still didn't know what would be best for her.

"So Deku-chan do you have an idea?" Ochaco came up behind her.

The green-haired girl shook her curls, "Do you?"

"The Battle Hero: Gun Head."

Izuku frowned, "Didn't you say you wanted to be a rescue hero?"

The brunette scratched her neck awkwardly, "Yeah, but during my battle against Bakugo I saw how bad my fighting is, so getting stronger will open so many doors in the future, I can't stick to the old ways!"

"I see," Izuku tapped her lips, deep in thought.

Ochaco stared at her friend for an instant, trying to make sure her eyes weren't deceiving her.

"Deku-chan, why are you trembling," she finally asked.

The people in the close vicinity turned towards them, and indeed Izuku was trembling.

"What the hell Deku?" Katsuki frowned.

"Ah! I'm practising my air chair," she said nonchalantly.

"That's crazy!" Sero said loudly beside them.

"Yeah! I can't believe you are training even during class!"

Izuku laughed a bit, she loved her friends but they were too loud sometimes, and now she could see the veins popping on Katsuki's face from annoyance as he glared at the way too cheerful classmates.

"Well guys, it's nothing much I-" and as she started to speak the bell rang at the end of class.

She packed her things quietly, when everything was tucked neatly inside her school bag she noticed the ash-blond boy waiting for her.

"Come on nerd, your mother is going to worry," he growled.

Izuku blushed, they still hadn't talked about their hero names and she was quite happy at the idea of being the one to give him his.

"Deku!" he called out again but now he was by the door.

She shook her head and ran up to him, he opened the door and both teens jumped in surprise at the sudden appearance of the number one hero.

"I AM HERE! IN A STRANGE POSITION!" he cried in his booming voice.

"Are you fucking insane! Do you want to give us a fucking heart attack!" Katsuki yelled as Izuku let go of his sleeve that she had grabbed from fear.

_'I'm telling ya, I'm gonna die of a scare like this way before I lose my arms to One for All__!'_

"I'm sorry for scaring you, young Bakugo!" he then said in a quieter voice, "I need to talk to you young Midoriya,"

"Is there a problem?" she asked worriedly.

The tall man was sweating buckets through his smile, he straightened himself and signalled for her to follow him.

She shared a look with Katsuki and both followed the hero, he took them to an empty corner, far from any earshot.

He was trembling and sweating, scaring the teens.

"My old teacher has drafted you," he said in a shaky voice.

"Seriously? That's awesome!" Izuku's eyes shone with delight.

Did that mean she would be training with an old user of One for All? Or was the guy just someone who taught him how to use it?

"Who is he?" Katsuki asked, arms crossed.

"His name is Gran Torino, he was once an instructor here at U.A. and he was… my homeroom teacher," he gulped loudly.

"Gran Torino? I never heard of the bastard," Katsuki growled.

"He kept in the down low, but he knows about One for All, and that's why he asked for young Izuku, he thinks I'm a bad teacher, and he used his name of the old day! So, so scary!" the tall man was trembling even more.

Both teens shared a look, they had never seen the hero so scared before in their lives. The thought of who he was afraid of made them shake slightly too, not that Katsuki would admit that he was scared.

"Well as training you is my duty, and apparently I'm not sufficient here it is!" he gave her a piece of paper and was way calmer now as he changed the subject, "Oh, don't forget your costume!" he glanced at Katsuki then back at her, "it has been repaired,"


	13. Not an Update

Hey there guys!

I know I haven't updated in a while and you surely are disappointed that this isn't an update, and I'm sorry.

The thing is, some while back I lost the drive to continue this fic, and what made me happy about it, so I took some time off, and if you follow me in here, you saw that I started a new fic (for those who like my way of writing you can check out "The New Queen" that is also bakudeku with female Izuku, but in the fantasy au).

But I finally found my desire to come back, but I've been rereading and I have to say I'm not entirely satisfied with what I wrote... so what I'm saying is that "Us Against Them" is undergoing a rewrite that I sincerely hope won't take too long.

"The New Queen" still is my main priority, but I'll try to post as soon as I can.

I'm thankful for the kind words, for every critic and for those who stuck around.

Sorry again, but I hope that when this fic comes back, it will still have what made you stay and be even better.

See you guys soon!

Kisses, and stay safe!


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